Re: [PEN-L] Peak food
I just like kalecki s equation. it shows in the typical classical sense that price markup and degree of monpoly ie profits lower proportionatly the real wage. moreover since prices are in the purview of capital workers can only raise their nominal thru union activity. Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
[PEN-L] the expected happened
Climbing Up the Technology Ladder? High-Technology Exports in China and Latin America by Kevin P. Gallagher Roberto Porzecanski U.C. Berkeley Center for Latin American Studies Working Paper No. 20 The developed world has lost significant market share in high technology exports. China has captured the bulk of those exports and Latin America is falling far behind. Authors Kevin Gallagher and Roberto Porzecanski find that in 1980 China was ranked 99th of all nations in terms of the percentage of global exports in high technology; by 2005 China had climbed to second place in the world. Not only is Latin America losing global shares, but the authors find that close to 95% of all Latin American high technology exports are under some sort of threat from China, comprising more than 12% of total exports from Latin America. Whereas Latin America has been following a neo-liberal set of trade and technology policies, China has been pursuing a neo-developmental policy that has outperformed Latin America decisively. The paper is available at: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/Rp/Gallagher-Porzecanski_BCLAS.pdf For more on GDAE’s Globalization and Sustainable Development Program: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/globalization.html Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
[PEN-L] Africa says no – and means it
http://mondediplo.com/2008/01/01africa Africa says no – and means it By Ignacio Ramonet The unimaginable has happened, to the displeasure of arrogant Europe. Africa, thought to be so poor that it would agree to anything, has said no in rebellious pride. No to the straitjacket of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), no to the complete liberalisation of trade, no to the latest manifestations of the colonial pact. Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Re: [PEN-L] George Habash, marxist, Dies at 82
unlike today's violent acts, the planes were emptied and then exploded to draw media attention to the palestinian question - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 6:32:30 PM Subject: Re: George Habash, marxist, Dies at 82 according to the newspaper, he's famous for arranging airplane hijacking. Any comments? On Jan 26, 2008 10:48 PM, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=print/161 The Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam interviewed Dr. George Habash, Founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in May 2001. The interview follows below: The key to facing any potential internal conflict is to ensure democratic process at all levels of society, to preserve the human rights, dignity, and freedom of the Arab person, to ensure that the basic material needs of each person are met, and to protect cultural, religious, political, and social pluralism within society. In this respect, pluralism becomes a source of wealth and cultural and social richness rather than a means of fragmentation and an invitation for external, colonialist interference. Source URL: http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=interview-dr-george-habash-2001 Links: [1] http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=english/%3Fq%3Dnode/148 Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ -- Jim Devine / Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
[PEN-L] George Habash, marxist, Dies at 82
http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=print/161 The Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam interviewed Dr. George Habash, Founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in May 2001. The interview follows below: The key to facing any potential internal conflict is to ensure democratic process at all levels of society, to preserve the human rights, dignity, and freedom of the Arab person, to ensure that the basic material needs of each person are met, and to protect cultural, religious, political, and social pluralism within society. In this respect, pluralism becomes a source of wealth and cultural and social richness rather than a means of fragmentation and an invitation for external, colonialist interference. Source URL: http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=interview-dr-george-habash-2001 Links: [1] http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=english/%3Fq%3Dnode/148 Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
Re: [PEN-L] Minestrone soup
no asset is worthless if it can be made good in the future... that is the beauty of a deep very deep financial market that allows you to borrow indefinetly against assets that you could sieze from others abroad by sheer force. this is no ministrone it is imperial rent - Original Message From: Sandwichman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 3:35:39 AM Subject: Minestrone soup I just finished eating a tasty nutritious bowl of worthless assets. It cost me $1.29 for half a gallon. The $1.29 was for a can of organic kidney beans, on sale, that I added to the culled tomatoes, potatoes, chard, zucchini, carrots, broccolli stems and onion that I brought home from work for free. All but the tomatoes and onion were organic. Although all the vegetables were perfectly fresh and edible, they were not marketable because of blemishes, bruises or rotten spots that are easily cut off. What I want to know is can you make soup out of worthless financial assets? If you can, what is the recipe? If you can't, why bother talking about the credit crises? -- Sandwichman Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
[PEN-L] Special Report: Egypt - financial times
in 2007 http://www.ft.com/reports/egyptdec2007 “There’s a vicious circle of the small clique getting filthy rich and the rest getting impoverished,” says Nader Fergany, a former economics professor and author of the Arab Human Development Report from 2002 to 2005. “We have returned this country to what it used to be called before the 1952 revolution: the 1 per cent society. One per cent controls almost all the wealth of the country.” here's what braverman says about this turnabout in 1959 Harry Braverman The Nasser Revolution (January 1959) Nasser’s regime is certainly a dictatorship masquerading as a revolution, but it is also a dictatorship fulfilling some of the obligations of a revolution, and initiating the trends and processes which will make for more revolution in Egypt. So long as the military can effectively substitute itself for the social struggle, keep the pot boiling, and give at least the impression of forward motion, it can hold sway. If it falters, the dispossessed nobles and landowners are on hand to take over again, with imperialist help, unless the Egyptian working class and peasantry have in the meantime so matured as to be able to make the Nile Valley the scene of Africa’s first experiment in socialism. Inside this issue • Succession to Hosni Mubarak is dominating debate to the exclusion of all else • Economic headline numbers are much improved • The government is preparing to privatise a second large state-owned bank - - Content Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Re: [PEN-L] National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute
what if foreigners that owned US paper and US finanacial instruments wanted to convert these papers into real assets inside the US. Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
Re: [PEN-L] economics in the news!
math is art not science, and when game theory takes hold of it is actuarial science and not social science. in the sensce one that seeks to sudy how society develops and the conditions for change. but is it not possible for an ideological social science position to become scientific when subjected to interpersonal comparisons. - Original Message From: raghu [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 8:12:04 PM Subject: Re: economics in the news! On Nov 28, 2007 6:26 AM, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: is game theory a serious science? is any social research serious science? not yet. The problem with game theory is not that it isn't serious science as much as that its users often have _pretensions_ of being serious scientists. (as per usual in social research, they reify their models, confusing the map with the territory.) And not all of its practitioners have such pretensions. Game theory is best thought of as a branch of mathematics. The problem is with the application not with the theory itself. -raghu. Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ
Re: [PEN-L] economics in the news!
Althusser says he was giving his wife a massage when he discovered he had strangled her and he got off with consignment to a sanitorium. after reading althusser, it does not take much to prove that althusser is insane. i think the same goes for game theory. anyone who really think that is serious science would have to qualify as insane. indeed, the future lasts a long time. - Original Message From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 5:13:13 PM Subject: Re: economics in the news! Here is what I wrote about the case back in January on my Blog I found the story interesting for 2 reasons. First, the Times reports: .Robb was an expert in game theory, a complex melding of psychology, human behavior and economics . all aimed at determining what one.s adversary will do next. With that background, police say, Robb may have thought he could outsmart them.. Although the police claim that his efforts to outwit them were amateurish. http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/the-futility-of-game-theory-a-murder-mystery/ yes, but how good is his research? -- Jim Devine / Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Re: [PEN-L] Rational Expectations and the Housing Bubble
More than 70% of U.S. consumers believe a national housing bubble will burst and home prices will collapse within the next year, although 56% believe it's unlikely to happen in the area where they live, according a new survey. Morrissey, Janet. 2006. Consumers Expect Housing Bubble to Burst. Wall Street Journal (20 April): p. D 3 The idea that governemnt is in the business of fooling people happens often. but it fools them to the interests of the class it serves, and rational expectation represents the view of those who think that people are not fooled enough for the interets of more voracious section of the upper class. the only decent thing about it is that when peoples' expectations tally with what market equilibrium is, the consequences are completely ascoial and without any moral preconceptions or implications. Recall that market equilibrium is a 'positive' outcome in the pragamatic sense of the word, for the market could clear at a price and quantity level that could easily wipe out a whole population and that would still be pareto optimal, hence the absurdity of symbolic, asocial and ahistorical reasoning. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ
Re: [PEN-L] Saddam's strategy
By Kantian moral equivalence all near eastern political regimes are guilty of crimes to similar degrees. I remember from the days when Khomeini with about alhassan bani sadr were massacring the fadayeen (both akalyat and aktharyat), pecar (the maoists), tuddeh (the soviet allied) and the kurds. there is more graphic evidence to support crimes against humanity against the Iranian regime than there is against saddam, although once more from a Kantian moral equivalence stand point: a crime is a crime. but the crime now is called waiting- as Lenin called it to be exact: waiting is a crime. notice the standpoint of the Lebanese communist party towards resistance in Iraq... because the majority of resistance was in Sunni areas they would not even recognize it as resistance, because the majority of the party is Shiite. recall the debate on the French left in the mid sixties as to whether Africa and the middle east- dis-articulated societies are apt to have communist parties, aren't these tribes disguised as workers parties sort of? disarticulation is taken here to mean that the process of proletarisation is half hearted leaving a worker in the near east with roots in the village and its still un-exhausted capacity to act as a social cushion when the development of the state is unfulfilled by colonial design. The wage worker is a wage earner with pre-capitalist peasant ideals, hence disarticulation and the difficulty of constructing classes in the same cast as this of the western world. all this goes to say that why wasn't the left internationally because of its hang up with saddam Hussein incapable of supporting Iraqi anti imperialist resistance? is this not political opportunism, especailly also on the part of western leftist groups - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 4:36:49 PM Subject: Saddam's strategy from SLATE's news summary: The New York Times leads with word that the U.S. military is currently considering a classified proposal that would increase the role of Pakistan's tribal leaders in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Inspired by what is largely seen as a successful strategy in Iraq's Anbar province, the U.S. military would enlist the help of locals where the Pakistani army has failed to put a stop to the growing presence of extremist groups. it's interesting that this was also Saddam Hussein's strategy in his later years. As I understand it, the Ba'ath party became increasingly corrupt and lost its roots among the people, so it became increasingly difficult to maintain order and even a trace of legitimacy (except among the most corrupt elements). In response, he relied more and more on tribal leaders. (I'd bet that they were corrupted by the process, but I don't know.) Also, Islam played a larger and larger role, getting away from the Ba'ath party's secularism. -- Jim Devine / Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. Get easy, one-click access to your favorites. Make Yahoo! your homepage. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Re: [PEN-L] The Long Fall
one should not underestimate the capacity of US empire to generate imperial rents by killing abroad. little that it matters how its accounts go, much that matters on its imperial aggression.. the 20 century killing spree is not far off __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] iran is not a liberation project
according to the author: there cannot be obscurantist anti imperialism, he says snip The second prime project in the Arab region is the Iranian project. Its problematic aspect is that it is not a liberation project, but rather it is predicated on an agenda of expansion with nationalist and sectarian aspects. Although it collides with the U.S. and its imperialist orientation, the Iranian regime's struggle with imperialism is on the basis of benefits and spheres of influence, not geared to a politics of liberation. In this way, we can better understand the emergent contradictions in Iranian politics: the regime's support for the resistances in Lebanon and Palestine; its facilitation of the U.S. invasion and occupation in Afghanistan; and its destructive role in Iraq, sponsoring sectarian militias and politics which have caused the destruction of the country and the death of countless Iraqis. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/bustani281007.html Surmounting Sectarianism in the Middle East: An Interview with Hisham Bustani by As'ad al-Azzouni In a recent interview with the Qatari daily al-Raya, the Jordanian Marxist writer and activist Hisham Bustani analyses current issues: the situation in the Arab region; threats against Iran; the Broader Middle East Initiative; the U.S., Arab regimes, and Islamists; and prospects of the Arab liberation project. This interview, conducted by the journalist As'ad al-Azzouni, clarifies the internal processes of subjection and their connection with external processes. It also sheds light on positions of Arab progressives and how they perceive their objective reality and future. Bustani emphasizes the need for Left unity in building a pan-Arab, de-sectarianized movement of principled resistance to imperialism. -- Bill Templer __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Petrocracy in Venezuela? irredenta
why is the matter of irredentism in the Arab mashreq not understood as a colonialist plot to rob Arab people of their resources. how else one can explain that a Qatari family earns 10,000$ month has two domestic Asian servants and the Qatari state sends billions to the US and more so allows the US to build a huge military base on its territory... this example is followed by everyone else and the very constitution cum inception of the small gulf states had to do with piracy in the Arabian sea against the east India company, whilst a Yemeni family earns less than 60 $ a month and densely Yemen has around 40% children malnutrition. call it big design or fortuity, the devil is in the detail of course, call it what you want but things as they are indicate that an Arab people robbed of their will to form states by colonial design and aggression is what it is. imperialism in the Arab world was and is of the worst kind. the only reason Korea and Vietnam were first for the US is because the gulf would have meant more of a nuclear war than the invasion of Germany. - Original Message From: Patrick Bond [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Wednesday, November 7, 2007 9:20:35 AM Subject: Re: Petrocracy in Venezuela? Depends upon your time frame and measure. If 'conditions of citizens' include the negative 'genuine savings' that come from non-renewable resource depletion, it is very easy to argue those conditions are negative compared to earlier epochs. -Original Message- Ken wrote: With many of the sheikdoms who sit on oil and lavish the oil wealth on themselves I very much doubt that the conditions of citizens are worse than before the oil was found. I know that for citizens of Kuwait there are extensive social services and excellent health care-but not for the non-citizens who do all the drudge work. the problem is that in many cases the publicly owned oil companies are in autocratic regimes that do not spend their wealth on their citizens--although some do in a paternalistic manner. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Petrocracy in Venezuela?
Yes there are trhe exceptions but the rule is quite different. also you must note that there is very little absorptive capacity and a lot more money thaen is needed for consumption per head. in numbers in the Uae there 2 million nationals with nearly 200 billion dollars in income see - Original Message From: ken hanly [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 5:34:09 AM Subject: Re: Petrocracy in Venezuela? THeir ills are different. My point is just that those who are citizens are probably much better off at least in some of the Gulf States. In all of those states there are large numbers of non-citizen foreign workers who often live in terrible conditions including many female domestic workers. But some foreign workers are happy enough. I have a brother-in-law who is a filipino who has worked in Kuwait for several years who thinks it is great there. He is well paid though and works in an oil field. He has signed on repeatedly for yearly contracts. --- Perelman, Michael [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ken's note that the sheikdon's avoid much of the ills associated with the curse of oil is interesting. In many countries, a rich resource spells trouble for most of the people. Patrick Bond can speak of Africa. Why is Dubai different from Nigeria? Is it because it is a small place where people might know or be related to one another? Does it have tribal cleavages? Or is it more vulnerable to popular unrest? Ken wrote: With many of the sheikdoms who sit on oil and lavish the oil wealth on themselves I very much doubt that the conditions of citizens are worse than before the oil was found. I know that for citizens of Kuwait there are extensive social services and excellent health care-but not for the non-citizens who do all the drudge work. the problem is that in many cases the publicly owned oil companies are in autocratic regimes that do not spend their wealth on their citizens--although some do in a paternalistic manner. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Kuwait : Health and Welfare
they are undergoing a privatisation binge nad note that saudi per capita income which is the leading gulf state fell from 18,000 $ in 1981 to about 6,000$ in 2001. so this is an income as volatile as oil and it does not benefit the poorer arabs going right in to the vaults of the US treasury. so it takes littkle for capiatl to create a parasitic consuming national class in the gulf when it could deprive everyone else of that wealth - Original Message From: ken hanly [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 5:54:01 AM Subject: Kuwait : Health and Welfare THe problems that Soulas points out are real enough but so are the benefits provided to citizens. Here is the example of Kuwait. Free health care, free education through the university level. No taxes etc. etc. not too bad. I wouldn't mind being a Kuwaiti citizen. This from this site. http://countrystudies.us/persian-gulf-states/19-Health.htm It may be that the extensive welfare state has been scaled back in recent years. I don't know for sure. Kuwait Health and Welfare Persian Gulf States Table of Contents The health care system and health conditions also improved dramatically in the years after oil revenues brought wealth to the country. Kuwait's first attempts to introduce a modern health care system date back to the first years of the twentieth century when the ruler, Shaykh Mubarak Al Sabah the Great, invited doctors from the Arabian Mission of the Dutch Reformed Church in the United States to establish a clinic. By 1911 the group had organized a hospital for men and in 1919 a small hospital for women. In 1934 the thirty-four-bed Olcott Memorial Hospital opened. Between 1909 and 1946, Kuwait experienced gradual, albeit limited, improvement in health conditions. General mortality stood between twenty and twenty-five per 1,000 population and infant mortality between 100 and 125 per 1,000 live births. After the government began receiving oil revenues, it expanded the health care system, beginning with the opening of the Amiri Hospital in 1949. The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) also opened some small health facilities. By 1950 general mortality had fallen to between seventeen and twenty-three per 1,000 population and infant mortality to between eighty and 100 per 1,000 live births.In the 1950s, the government introduced a comprehensive health care system offering free services to the entire population. Free health care was so extensive that it even included veterinary medicine. Expenditures on health ranked third in the national budget, after public works and education. As with education, the system relied heavily on foreigners. Most of the physicians were foreigners, particularly Egyptians. Critics charged the designers of the system with paying undue attention to acquiring the most modern and expensive medical equipment, without regard to the country's health priorities, and favoring treatment over prevention. Nonetheless, improvements in available health care and in public health were dramatic. The number of doctors grew from 362 in 1962 to 2,641 in 1988. The doctor-to-patient ratio improved from one to 1,200 to one to 600. Infant and child mortality rates dropped dramatically; in 1990 the infant mortality rate was fifteen per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy increased ten years in the postindependence years, putting Kuwait at a level comparable to most industrialized countries. In 1990 life expectancy for males was seventy-two years and for females seventy-six years. In addition to a comprehensive system of health care, the government provides residents with one of the world's most encompassing social service systems. Not only does it indirectly support the national population through guaranteed state employment and subsidized services (such as water and electricity), but it also supports those most in need through direct subsidies. These include the disabled, the elderly, the unemployed, students and their families, the widowed, the unmarried, and even the families of prisoners. By 1990 Kuwait had an extensive welfare program, exceeded perhaps by no other country. Citizens receive free medical services from highly trained practitioners in modern facilities; free education through the university level; subsidized food, housing, utilities, and transportation; and various other benefits. For all this, they pay no taxes: the system is supported by oil revenues from outside the country. On the eve of the Iraqi invasion, the United Nations Development Programme placed Kuwait at the top of its annual human development index with a life expectancy of 73.4 years, an adult literacy rate of 73 percent, and a real per capita gross domestic product of US$15,984. The benefits of the welfare system, however, are unevenly distributed among the population. Noncitizens in particular benefit much less, and many, especially those from Arab states and those who have worked many years in Kuwait, resent their
Re: [PEN-L] Petrocracy in Venezuela?
the UAE case It is not different, it may be worse given the law of big numbers. I have just looked at the excess savings over investment since 2003 until 2006 and it was 530 billion dollars. the national savings always (since 1970) exeeded investment for the GCC by more than two trillion until now and arab investment abroad are calculated at 1.4 triion a few years back now of course there is more. there are for inst in uae in some estimates 70 percent exptatriate out of a poulation 4.4 million living in appaulling condition. see below for news items. there are 13 million froeign workers in the GCC more than twice the active labour force. UAE detains 4,000 South Asian migrant workers for protesting http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=127434 Four thousand Asian labourers in Dubai are reportedly facing expulsion after they staged illegal strikes at the weekend over poor wages and working conditions in the booming Gulf city state. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071030/twl-uae-labour-rights-3cd7efd_3.html also regionally in the arab mashreq partitioned by sykes picot treaty circa 1916. regional unemployment rates remained persistently high despite the recent growth bout driven by high oil prices. It has been around fifteen percent for nearly two decades now. Much of unemployment is cyclical and just as much is related to the fact that organised labour is weak, its input into employment policy is feeble, it cannot push for higher wages and, consequently, regional labour’s share stayed relatively small and commerce continues to be pursued on the basis of hiring cheaply remunerated Asian labour. Labour is not cheap, but it is cheapened by the power relations that stand behind labour services on the market. The pro-market policies that allowed unemployment to rise to these levels have not changed. If anything, there is now a bigger involvement of the private sector in the economy. Oil price hikes divert resources abroad and raise affluent consumption as opposed to investing in a regionally positioned increasing returns industry that is labour intensive. Given the articulation of the regional power structure, there is little chance for policy reversal in the short term. In the absence of an industrial regional policy, economic growth will be mostly pinned on oil rents, rising consumption and hiring service sector workers at cheap wages from Asia, whilst the much of the more populated oil poor nations suffer from lack of capital resources. Raising wages to a level that would allow a decent living for regional labour would entail that everyone should enjoy the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his or her interests as per the universal declaration of human rights. In arab mashreq, that has rarely been the case. Alas, the latest report of the International Trade Union Confederation indicates that workers in the region still have fewer trade union rights than anywhere else in the world. Had developments in trade unionism been sound and regionally coordinated, the wages would have been higher, more national/regional labour would reap wages above the economic and cultural reservation threshold and, conversely, there would have been less emphasis on hiring foreign cheaply remunerated Asian labour, more emphasis on hiring regional labour and, therefore, less unemployment. As things stand, that is, without a regional industrialisation agenda emphasising a relatively protected labour intensive increasing returns industry and, from which the rise in labour share alone resulting from a more autonomous syndicalism that would contribute to restructuring the power relations behind the institutions to reflect the rising value of labour, matters will remain as they are. But to do so must also be accompanied by an a priori sovereignty over national resources, a condition without which all the talk of good governance and institutional reform would be meaningless. one must recall that to form small states sparsely populated around huge oil reserves was carried out by colonial design. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] MACROfoundations
I think the biggest failure of neoclassical economics relates to the way the labour market operates. so i chose this: As an aside, the conventional (mainstream) neoclassical economic strategies relate the cause of unemployment to high real wages that were pushed by trade unions. The tenet - built upon Say’s Law - states that there are potential supplies of labour and capital that are capable of generating certain amount of output that in turn can generate sufficient demand to absorb this output. In this sense, it argues for cutting down money wages, which will dampen real wages and this in turn will ‘generate employment’. On the other hand, a more fruitful analysis challenges this argument and works with the general view that unemployment is a normal feature of a capitalist economy. In other words, capitalist economies are characterised by being inherently cyclical, where full employment and capacity utilization settles at the height of the boom. The first and foremost basic assumption in here is that both unemployment and real wages are demand-determined not price-determined. In this sense, real wages are determined in the product market rather than the labour market. For further reference, please refer to Sawyer, M. (1985). Whilst money wages are determined in the labour market, where the trade union activity takes effect, real wages are relatively little influenced by the conditions in the labour market and effectively determined by the degree of monopoly. From this perspective, when money wages are decreased, the general average prices (specifically the cost-determined prices) will adjust to this decrease in wages and decrease themselves too, therefore having no final effect on real wages. Second, the relationship between real wages and the level of output is not straightforward to predict. When real wages decline, there is no implication that low real wages causes high output, rather that both result from a high level of aggregate demand. In the General Theory, Keynes wrote as follows: ‘Perhaps it will help to rebut the crude conclusion that a reduction in money wages will increase employment ‘because it reduces the cost of production’, if we follow up the course of events on the hypothesis most favorable to this view, namely at the outset entrepreneurs generally expect the reduction in money wages to have this effect. …if, then, entrepreneurs generally act on this expectation, will they in fact succeed in increasing their profits? …The proceeds realized from the increased output will disappoint the entrepreneurs and employment will fall back again to its previous figure, unless the marginal propensity to consume is equal to unity or the reduction in money-wages has the effect of increasing the schedule of marginal efficiencies of capital relatively to the rate of interest and hence the amount of investment. See Keynes 1964 [1936], p. 261. Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos more. http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC
[PEN-L] Funds that shake capitalist logic By Lawrence Summers
Here below is additional proof that Patanaik's point that global imbalances will not be refressed by exchange rate tinkering but the crisis will come when foreigners seek national assets in the US Funds that shake capitalist logic By Lawrence Summers Financial Times July 29 2007 17:49 For some time now, the large flow of capital from the developing to the industrialised world has been the principal irony of the international financial system. In 2007 this flow will total well over half a trillion dollars, a figure that will be comfortably exceeded by the build-up in reserves and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in developing countries. Indeed, Morgan Stanley has estimated on reasonable assumptions that there is now close to $2,500bn (￡1,200bn, €1,800bn) in SWFs and that this figure will increase to $5,000bn by 2010 and $12,000bn by 2015. Inevitably, and appropriately, countries possessed of publicly held foreign assets far in excess of anything needed to respond to financial contingencies feel pressure to deploy them strategically or at least to earn higher returns than those available in US Treasury bills or their foreign equivalents. Even without this pressure, SWFs are now growing at a faster pace than the global rate of new issuance of traditional reserve assets. There is plenty of room for debate over how large these funds should become. (Does China really need a saving rate in excess of 50 per cent that all but forces hundreds of billions of dollars in reserve growth?) But on any plausible path over the next few years, a crucial question for the global financial system and indeed for the global economy is how these funds will be invested. The question is profound and goes to the nature of global capitalism. A signal event of the past quarter-century has been the sharp decline in the extent of direct state ownership of business as the private sector has taken ownership of what were once government-owned companies. Yet governments are now accumulating various kinds of stakes in what were once purely private companies through their cross-border investment activities. In the last month we have seen government-controlled Chinese entities take the largest external stake (albeit non-voting) in Blackstone, a big private equity group that, indirectly through its holdings, is one of the largest employers in the US. The government of Qatar is seeking to gain control of J.?Sainsbury, one of Britain’s largest supermarket chains. Gazprom, a Russian conglomerate in effect controlled by the Kremlin, has strategic interests in the energy sectors of a number of countries and even a stake in Airbus. Entities controlled by the governments of China and Singapore are offering to take a substantial stake in Barclays, giving it more heft in its effort to pull off the world’s largest banking merger, with ABN Amro. To date most of the official commentary on the issue of SWFs has been framed in terms of traditional arguments about cross-border capital flows. US and UK officials have raised -concerns that focus only on the desirability of reciprocity and transparency and on how to treat sectors that trigger national security questions. Others, particularly in -continental Europe, have been less positive and have emphasised nationalist considerations about the benefits of local ownership and control. What has received less attention are the particular risks associated with ownership by government-controlled entities, particularly where the ownership stake is taken through direct investments. The logic of the capitalist system depends on shareholders causing companies to act so as to maximise the value of their shares. It is far from obvious that this will over time be the only motivation of governments as shareholders. They may want to see their national companies compete effectively, or to extract technology or to achieve influence. We have seen the degree of concern over News Corp’s attempt to buy The Wall Street Journal. How differently should one feel about a direct investment stake of a foreign government in a media or publishing company? Apart from the question of what foreign stakes would mean for companies, there is the additional question of what they might mean for host governments. What about the day when a country joins some “coalition of the willing” and asks the US president to support a tax break for a company in which it has invested? Or when a decision has to be made about whether to bail out a company, much of whose debt is held by an ally’s central bank? All of these risks would be greatly mitigated if SWFs invested through intermediary asset managers, as is the case with most institutional pools of capital such as endowments and pension funds. The experience of many endowments and pension funds suggests that this approach is in most cases likely to produce the best risk-adjusted returns. To the extent that SWFs pursue
[PEN-L] An Iraqi's take on Iran (whatever happened to Yoshie)
That the US wants Iran to be coerced into complete submission, bombed, or dismantled and be taken apart is a matter that can be clearly discerned from the avowed intent, practice and strategic aims of US imperialism. And in point of analogy, the US’s approach to Iran will resemble to a large extent that of its approach to Iraq- it will carry out a strategy of protracted siege and warfare and will not meet anyone half way. No haggling will do, even by the most astute carpet dealer in Iran and, in the absence of rational alternatives to the necessity of war for US empire, it is best to anecdotally explain matters in Twelver-Shiism mythological terms: the world will be heating up before the Mahdi’s comeback. Some predict that the degree of heat in the Gulf will be thermo-nuclear. Nuclear hot or not, judging by the horrific death toll figures that came of Iraq in between wars and under the embargo, there is a clear case to be made that in Iran and in some time to come soon there will be systemic and purposefully inflicted sudden deaths en masse. And, if so, is Iran doing the right thing in Iraq to avert the oncoming onslaught? I think not. First, because the Shiite theocracy in Iran sees in Sunni Islam more of a threat to its interests than it does in American imperialism and, secondly because Iran has given the US much of what it had scored politically in Iraq, especially, whatever gains it had against a principally Sunni resistance; and, in no ambiguous terms, by doing this it had inadvertently created a space for American diplomacy outside of Iraq and politicking on the inside to build a momentum for the assault on Iran. In hindsight, there is to support all this a damming piece of evidence and that is if this were not true, we would not have seen Iran from the very outset coalescing with the US invasion and re-colonisation of Afghanistan and Iraq, culminating in all things in the most recent security arrangement aimed at stemming the principally Sunni resistance whilst fostering the sectarian death squads. Call it luck, but it is grand for the United States to control the Gulf in the presence theocratic dictatorships. What more malleable and self-defeating enemy can one hope for. The Near East is the stomping grounds of the sole hegemon and one may well remember that the US did not share even the slightest with France or Russia in embargoed Iraq. The US’s sovereignty over the Gulf can be summarised in the words of Lee Hamilton before the congressional committee ‘Middle East oil, we have to have it.’ Oil, apart from its multiple usages in production, is principally a means of control. And what is Iran doing to rebuff its impending demise but to practice Taqiyya. The concept of Taqiyya refers to a controversial dispensation allowing believers to conceal their faith when under threat, persecution or compulsion, that is, lie to protect oneself. There is hypocrisy and demagogy in all diplomatic intercourse, so lying is not all that much of an issue, but the crux of the matter in diplomacy is how to lie well. And, Iran by its very Shiite constitution and raison d’etre cannot conceal its hate or lies to the principally Sunni Islamic world. It has ridiculed the art of diplomacy and created a popular rift in the Islamic world that is nigh impossible to bridge. What more could the US ask for. Black turbaned pro Iranian Shiite clerics have even bestowed some legitimacy over the lackey Arab regimes, who in turn jumped at the chance to foment sectarian strife. In short no matter how efficient is Iranian Shiite opposition to American imperialism, there is too little of it to deliver the necessary blow to American capital and, therefore, by mere consideration of space, there cannot be successful anti imperialist struggle under half witted sectarian ideologies. Victory requires front work. The principal contradiction exists between Iraqi resistance and US imperialism, and anything short of this is short sighted. Iraq, not Iran, remains the central stage in the struggle against imperialism. In it, there were gains and losses for American capital. On the losses side, there was a moral defeat in Abou Ghraib. There was an ideological defeat in the fact that Iraqi democracy is anything but that. There was a cultural defeat in that mass killings in Iraq are somewhat related to the mass-production of Fordism of the western world. Short of a complete withdrawal, there was a military defeat in the sense that its military hold in Iraq is shaky at best. All of which however, were due to the heroic struggle of the Iraqi resistance, who we know now was secular, patriotic and composed of all shades of Iraqi society. On the gains side for US capital, the instigation of instability in the Near East breeds instability on a global scale causing insecure capital to flow into the US and buttress its imperial rents. The permanent military presence in the lands and
[PEN-L] A very Iran question
The reactionary Arab regimes are using the communal argument to foment anti shiism in the Arab world. They are pointing to Iran's tacit collaboration with the US in Iraq and to Sistani's legitimisation of occupation in various steps. Not even a Hizbollah fight against Israel would offset the damage done in deepening the communal divide. Is it then true that when communal arguments are used, it becomes nearly impossible to stop the spread of civil war between sunnis and Siites across the Muslim world? Need Mail bonding? Go to the Yahoo! Mail QA for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=listsid=396546091
[PEN-L] POVERTY AND NEOLIBERALISM
POVERTY AND NEOLIBERALISM Persistence and Reproduction in the Global South Ray Bush (when in the 3d world he likes to say I am no relative george w) ISBN: 9780745319605 Paperback This thoroughly researched book unveils the conceptual uses and abuses of 'poverty'. ... Ray Bush breaks new ground in the way we think about class and other social struggles in Africa. Patrick Bond, Director, University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society, Durban, South Africa Why do so many people worldwide suffer hunger and poverty when there is enough food and other resources globally to prevent it? This book shows how famine and food insecurity are an essential part of modern capitalism. Although trade, debt relief and development initiatives are important, they do not alter the structure of the global economy and the poverty that is created by processes like privatisation, trade liberalisation and market reform. Despite the rhetoric of the World Bank and the G8, high levels of poverty actually sustain western wealth and power. But there is some hope for change. Using case studies from Egypt and North Africa, Nigeria, Sudan and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, Ray Bush illustrates that there is resistance to neoliberal policies, and that struggles over land, mining and resources can shape real alternatives to existing globalisation. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] The global economy through rose-tinted glasses: Robert Wade
The global economy through rose-tinted glasses Robert Wade FT Published: April 30 2007 18:29 | Last updated: April 30 2007 18:29 Talk of the future has been dominated by climate change and the mood is one of alarm. But among those who focus on economics the mood is upbeat. Climate change worries aside, the future to 2030 looks quite rosy. According to the World Bank’s recent Global Economic Prospects, output will probably double in real terms by 2030 and developing countries’ output will triple. In much of the developing world, average incomes per head will converge with those in high-income countries and the number of people living in poverty (on less than $2 a day) will fall from 2.7bn today to 1.9bn. These trends will be driven by increasing integration of trade and finance and diffusion of technology. If they continue on beyond 2030, Bangladesh will have a chance to become as prosperous as the Netherlands. It is worth taking a closer look at the World Bank’s model, for projections are only as good as the assumptions. The model assumes, first, that globalisation has been and will continue to be the main driver of improvements in economic performance – provided there is no protectionist backlash. In reality, much of the success attributed to globalisation is in fact the success of one giant country: China. The picture of the past 25 years would look quite different if we took the typical developing country rather than the average for all of them (which is pulled up by China). For example, the fall in the number of people in extreme poverty since the early 1980s is due entirely to the fall in poverty in China. Take out China, and the number rose. Many developing countries have gained little from globalisation and export-led growth and it is unclear whether they will gain more by continuing on the same track. The World Bank’s model also assumes that free-trade norms will continue to prevail. This is doubtful. In affluent countries, a lot of evidence suggests that further affluence is reducing people’s capacity to enjoy it. Throughout the west, rates of over-eating, family breakdown and addiction are rising. It is possible that electorates will respond by seeking to embed certain markets more firmly in a framework of political controls, even at the cost of slower growth. In developing countries, disillusionment with the paradigm of maximum openness is growing, as those that have moved towards free movement of goods, finance and enterprises have not experienced substantially improved economic performance. The focus on export-led growth has created intense competition between developing country producers to lower costs – including labour and environmental costs – and the exchange rate. Developing countries’ governments may begin to pay more attention to the growth of domestic demand and less to export demand as it becomes clear that export-led growth is not delivering. Commentators in the west will misrepresent this shift as a protectionist backlash. But the task for analysts is to figure out how to do import substitution well, and subject to multilateral disciplines, rather than just less. The Bank’s projections assume, third, no significant interruption from war. But the rise of important new economic states has almost always raised the level of conflict between them and existing dominant states. China’s rise is likely to generate further tensions between it and the US. The US may reassert its dominance by invoking China and Russia – flanked by Iran, North Korea and other non-compliant states – as a threat far beyond their real threat. The other impetus for conflict comes from the tendency for global supply capacity to run ahead of demand and for profits to fall. In response, the west has pushed for market liberalisation and infrastructure investment in developing countries, which help to expand demand by bringing in more consumers and producers. But their efforts have often generated conflict over the ownership of the newly liberalised assets and over the terms of exploitation. We saw western companies buying bankrupted Asian companies at rock-bottom prices after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, prompting a strong anti-western reaction. The emergence of China only adds to the tendency for supply capacity to run ahead of demand and for global financial instability to rise as payments imbalances accumulate. None of these less-than-rosy dynamics features in the World Bank’s projections to 2030 or in the prevailing optimism about the economic future. But we would be foolish to ignore them. The writer, a professor of political economy at the London School of Economics, is the author of Governing the Market __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] REALLY on another subject
judging by his comments on my recent paper this guy has got a very sharp mind. and if he is so, then I am worried about his foe. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] the UN MDGs and the Arab world
what would it take to alleviate poverty in the Arab world? according to a UN expert group meeting this: Policy Recommendations Policy recommendations during the expert group meeting referred to the content of the upcoming UN 2007 MDG Report as well as to the cooperation between Governments of Arab countries and regional UN organizations. There was a general consensus for the need to harmonize national and international statistics, particularly in the areas of education, health, and employment. In addition, they agreed that national efforts have to be increased to improve the coverage and accuracy of data reporting. Several Government officials highlighted the importance of customizing the MDG’s to the Arab region. They agreed that more weight should be given to conflict-related difficulties and to the obstacles that conflict places on making progress towards the attainment of the MDGs. Some government representatives emphasized the need to create additional forums for the exchange of ideas and experiences between Arab countries in their efforts to attain the MDG’s. Several Government officials asked the UN organizations to assist in estimating the costs of attaining the MDGs, and accordingly, to offer financing solutions. This is utterly shocking nothing about the role of instituions the formation of social classes predatory states and imperialism nothing about fiscal and monetaruy procedures nothin ziltch zero. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Iraq may hold twice as much oil
Because it was always politically unstable the British did not invest musch in Iraq in colonial days unlike what they did in Iran under the Shah. But these figures are not new... many before and long ago have said that Iraq's reserves are twice what the offical record said. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/23bedd7e-edd8-11db-8584-000b5df10621.html Iraq may hold twice as much oil By Ed Crooks in London Published: April 18 2007 20:24 | Last updated: April 18 2007 20:24 Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought, according to the most comprehensive independent study of its resources since the US-led invasion in 2003. The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers, and its attractions for international oil companies – if the conflict in the country can be resolved. If confirmed, it would raise Iraq from the world’s third largest source of oil reserves with 116bn barrels to second place, behind Saudi Arabia and overtaking Iran. The study from IHS, a consultancy, also estimates that Iraq’s production could be increased from its current rate of less than 2m barrels a day to 4m b/d within five years, if international investment begins to flow. That would put Iraq in the top five oil-producing countries in the world, at current rates. The IHS study is based on data collected in Iraq both before and after the invasion, showing the oilfields’ reserves and production history. Its estimate is based on analysis of geological surveys. Production costs in Iraq are low, particularly compared to the more complex offshore developments. IHS estimates that they are less than $2 a barrel. But the development of the industry depends on an improvement in the security environment, which remains very difficult. At least 170 people were killed on Wednesday in five co-ordinated car bomb attacks in Shia districts of Baghdad, the deadliest attacks the city has seen since US and Iraqi forces launched a joint security crackdown in February. The attacks came hours after Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister, claimed that Iraqi forces would be in a position to take over primary responsibility for security in all of Iraq’s 18 provinces by the end of the year. Ron Mobed of IHS said: Obviously the security situation is very bad, but when you look at the sub-surface opportunity, there isn’t anywhere else like this. Geologically, it’s right up there, a gold star opportunity. Of Iraq’s 78 oilfields identified as commercial by the government, only 27 are currently producing. A further 25 are not yet developed but close to production, and 26 are not yet developed and far from production. Iraq’s government has estimated that it would need $20bn-$25bn of investment from foreign companies to get production up to its full potential. Production methods have advanced greatly in the past two decades, and methods such as horizontal drilling have yet to be deployed in Iraq. The introduction of modern technology by foreign companies has the potential to deliver steep increases in oil recovery. Almost all the leading international oil companies and many smaller ones have expressed an interest in working in Iraq. So far the only new contracts for developments by foreign companies are the five signed by the Kurdistan regional government in the relatively peaceful north of Iraq. Iraq’s cabinet plans to present its proposed oil law to parliament next week, following a meeting Wednesday of political leaders and experts in Dubai. But many of the key details have yet to be resolved. Oil production in parts of the western desert region that are attached to Sunni Arab-majority provinces could help resolve some of the differences between Iraq’s sectarian political blocs. The Sunni have until now been strongly hostile to the federalism espoused by most Kurds and some Shia, arguing that it would deprive their less well-resourced heartland in the centre of the country of resources. Additional reporting Steve Negus, Iraq correspondent Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007 __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] The fiscal fallacy of decoupling from America
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/77c47b12-eb63-11db-b290-000b5df10621,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F77c47b12-eb63-11db-b290-000b5df10621.html_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fhome%2Feurope%2F The fiscal fallacy of decoupling from America Published: April 15 2007 17:08 | Last updated: April 15 2007 17:08 If the US economy tanks, what will happen to the rest of us? Some investment bankers have argued that this time we can easily decouple from the US. This view is rooted in the assumption that the indefatigable Asian consumer and the resilient European corporate sector have made us all less dependent. I do not buy this argument because it does not quite square with what we know about globalisation. The world has become more, not less integrated, in terms of trade and financial linkages. The large world economies do not all have the same growth rates, nor do they share the same business cycles. But surely we are not fully decoupled. Some countries may be more shock-resistant than they used to be, but in a globalised world shocks also spread more easily. The answer depends on which of those two effects weighs more strongly. I suspect it is the latter. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] three points from iraq
1. prime minister Maliki has to ask the US security a day in adavance as to whether he is able to move within the green zone. 2. Iraqi judge who issued saddam's execution order is seeking assylum in the UK 3. first guy who toppled saddam's statue in Baghdad four years ago, says he is sorry. Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL
[PEN-L] worst argument from the left is to preserve the state at any cost
What kind of government collaborates with foreign powers against its own people? What kind of government invites foreign forces to kill its own population? What kind of government substitutes militias for regular national armed forces? What kind of government bequests the nation’s oil wealth to foreign powers? And what kind of government goes begging to its neighbours to let its own citizens flee by millions into their countries? What is a government that rewards rapists? What is a government that rewards death squads? What is a government that lacks so much legitimacy that it has to surge for the fourth time its own capital? What is a government that kidnaps and imprisons and tortures the people? What is a government that invents new extremes of martial law? What is a government whose finances cannot be accounted for? What is a government that shamelessly degrades civil infrastructure? What is a government that cannot even provide basic services, like clean water and electricity? And what is a government that is never in the country? Such a government is the proof that occupation is the highest form of dictatorship. All peoples in the world aspire to democracy as it is supposed to be the expression of their will. The will of the Iraqi people could not be subjugated to force for the fourth consecutive year. The Iraqi Resistance is democratic by definition, because it is an upsurge of popular will, and is progressive by definition, because it defends the interests of the people. Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121
Re: [PEN-L] quotation du jour
exchange is the mediation cum outward manifestation of a social process valorised by concrete conditions and generalised by exchange... ‘Thus the contrast between use-value and value hidden away within the commodity,’ Marx wrote, ‘has an outward and visible counterpart, namely the relation between two commodities, the relation in which the commodity whose value is to be expressed counts only as use-value, whereas the commodity in terms of which value is to be expressed counts only as exchange-value. The simple value form of a commodity is, therefore, the simple phenomenal form of the inherent contrast (within the commodity) between use-value and value.’ - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 10:32:21 PM Subject: quotation du jour The act of exchanging is the source and proof of all economic gain, which explains the economist's preoccupation with it. Yet market exchange is neither necessary nor sufficient for mutual gain. It is not necessary because innumerable exchanges occur without benefit of the market and because many unreciprocated acts also yield satisfaction to both giver and recipient. It is not sufficient because market exchanges create not only satisfactions, but also the needs they satisfy, and anything that gives rise to both a need and its satisfaction is of little or no use to anyone. -- Tibor Scitovsky, THE JOYLESS ECONOMY, 2nd ed., p. 133. -- Jim Devine / The truth is more important than the facts. -- Frank Lloyd Wright Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. http://games.yahoo.com/games/front
Re: [PEN-L] Beyond Quagmire
there is quite a difference bwteen analytical rationality what elites debate and waht happens on the ground. the same could be said for any other american war. one is not to confuse or conflate the views of the few and juxtapose those to the way a process eveolves. in the case of iraq and nam and korea wars redressed balance of forces disequilibria in a continum called histroty in which the grave diggers of impeiralism need just a little nudge to get their act into shape to bring the whole edifice of capitalism down. a sytem that since 1929 been living on borrowed time. the invasion of iraq was contemnpplated by american circles early in the cold war. even Chirchil said of iraq and i paraphrase it is a great catch where there plaisn to rasie livestock.. oil if it was not for the soviet union iraq would have styaed an anglo american colony. - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 8:25:09 PM Subject: Re: Beyond Quagmire On 3/15/07, Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What about the fact that they already had Iraqi Kurdistan more or less in their pocket? having that as a potential base for invasion, made it much easier to conquer the rest of Iraq. It also fed illusions about being greeted with roses, since the Kurds were pretty friendly to the US. -- Jim Devine / The truth is more important than the facts. -- Frank Lloyd Wright Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. http://games.yahoo.com/games/front
Re: [PEN-L] Beyond Quagmire
my idiological side please forgive my utopia. yes they chaos goes hand in hand with control. no one would have ever thought that chaos would not ensue or proabably only on the island of north anmerica where people live under the influemce of fox and cnn - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 5:40:40 PM Subject: Re: Beyond Quagmire On 3/16/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: there is quite a difference bwteen analytical rationality what elites debate and waht happens on the ground. the same could be said for any other american war. one is not to confuse or conflate the views of the few and juxtapose those to the way a process eveolves. Right. in the case of iraq and nam and korea wars redressed balance of forces disequilibria in a continum called histroty in which the grave diggers of impeiralism need just a little nudge to get their act into shape to bring the whole edifice of capitalism down. a sytem that since 1929 been living on borrowed time. capitalism is on the verge of collapse, living on borrowed time??? that's news to me. Even if we have a replay of the 1930s on a world scale, capitalism won't permanently collapse until there is a world-wide mass movement ready to replace capitalism with something else. We don't even have actually-existing socialism any more (except in two small countries). the invasion of iraq was contemnpplated by american circles early in the cold war. even Chirchil said of iraq and i paraphrase it is a great catch where there plaisn to rasie livestock.. oil if it was not for the soviet union iraq would have styaed an anglo american colony. sure, the Anglo-American elites want to dominate the world. But did they want the chaos now seen in Iraq? -- Jim Devine / The truth is more important than the facts. -- Frank Lloyd Wright Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
Re: [PEN-L] Beyond Quagmire
There is one outstanding reason why the US went to war and that is control of oil and to secondary degree oil per se. Now control comes as it has been in the gulf way before the end of the cold war, a strong military presence, i.e. Saudi had 20,000 US military experts on average for a long time. Further control into Iraq and Iran means at least in part an extension of the Saudi model. The purpose of course is 'dynamic' extortion of others in the imperialist camp. But let me stop slightly at the word dynamic and qualify it so as to mean calibrating the amount control and violence together to the highest rate of accruing imperial rents, part of which-and only part, is of course the daily inflow of world capital into the coffers of empire. Now there are other views, but tensions in the near east are key to global instability, a matter which feeds neatly into militarism and of the US type in particular, upon which of course a host of other rents follow including reverse flows from around the globe into the most powerful nation. So now let us think of this as a system where if the US wants to keep growing in the way it did before, a reflection of which is so-called global imbalances, then it will need to instigate more tensions and move in more troops into strategic areas depending on the metabolism of its mode of capital accumulation. hence, the deeper the dependency of American capital on imperial rents as opposed or distinguished from pure home grown economic muscle, the more it will have to infuse a certain degree of near east tensions and move troops in. I think one should eavesdrop on the novel necessities of American capital accumulation and not the hubris of selling democracies abroad. The process is dynamic and imperialism can only reproduce the killing fields. - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 6:41:43 PM Subject: Re: Beyond Quagmire what's important is that just because X (destruction of Iraq as a social entity) results doesn't mean that X was the prior goal of the US elite. Even the most powerful country in the world doesn't always get what it wants. Even the president of the United States sometimes has to stand naked. On 3/14/07, Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 3/14/07, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 3/13/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nothing can be further from the truth.. The US went to war to completely destroy Iraq as a social and political entity, and it did. That is the ultimate victory: pulling out or, staying in, is just a mere detail. the US went to war to destroy Iraq as a social entity? I doubt it. Did the US elite want an area in the world which -- like Somalia -- represents a Hobbesian war of each against all which can harbor al Qaeda and spawn new (retail) terrorist movements, along with perhaps some unexpected anti-US movement? (For example, the US did not expect the Taliban to arise from Afghan chaos.) No, the US power elite wants law order (the preservation of their property and class privileges). IMHO, the US goals were: 1. strategic control over Iraqi oil and over a country with a very strategic location in the most oil-rich region of the world. 2. destruction of Saddam Hussein, including his opposition to Israel. 3. creation of a friendly state in that area. 4. maybe some others... I agree with Jim, but we can't totally discount a possibility that, for at least some of the power elite involved in selling the war to the American public, (2) trumped everything else and even to completely destroy Iraq as a social and political entity was an acceptable means for that purpose and still is, for, if Iraq remains a coherent social and political entity, Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism (or another ideology equally opposed to Israel) may rise in the future, though most in Washington probably had more rational economic and geopolitical goals in mind. -- Yoshie -- Jim Devine / The truth is more important than the facts. -- Frank Lloyd Wright The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php
[PEN-L] Beyond Quagmire
Nothing can be further from the truth.. The US went to war to completely destroy Iraq as a social and political entity, and it did. That is the ultimate victory: pulling out or, staying in, is just a mere detail. URL: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13710030/leaving_iraq_the_grim_truth Beyond Quagmire A panel of experts convened by Rolling Stone agree that the war in Iraq is lost. The only question now is: How bad will the coming explosion be? TIM DICKINSON Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121
[PEN-L] No mention of US occupation
A UN report fails to mention US occupation in Iraq as the casue of decline... Instaed it had this to say: Impact of Conflict on Unemployment in Iraq Damages caused by insurgents and the lack of new investment affected adversely most productive sectors, particularly in high violence regions. Iraq faces serious socioeconomic problems as a result of growing unemployment. The loss of jobs, low rates of investment, and internal displacement lead to instability in the Iraqi labor force. 4. The cause-effect relationship between unemployment, poverty, and violence creates a vicious circle. Unemployment leads to delinquency, which in turn decreases investment. This leads to less demand for labor, causing more unemployment, and consequently further increase in delinquency. Such a situation has direct effect on the general psychology of the average population. A feeling of uncertainty hovers above the country, creating a growing inactive class. Most ominously, this inactive class has disregarded the idea of seeking a job for three main reasons: the political-sectarian situation, the lack of security, and psychological disturbances. Psychological disturbances have a major impact on the non-working class, especially among the youth. Many youngsters are not attending schools anymore, and adolescents are not seeking higher education. This issue is very critical since it has a major impact on the nature of the future labor force in Iraq. If this trend persists, the reduction in illiteracy rates witnessed over the past two decades would reverse. This will eventually lead to more poverty and more delinquency, leading to an economic crisis. Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html
[PEN-L] the lebanese civil war is on hold.
There is one reason why there isn't an open sectarian military conflict in Lebanon and that is it will spill over into Syria opening a ventilation space for Sunni insurgents in Iraq. It is something the US Israel and Iran seem to be in accord with now. Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection. Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/features_spam.html
Re: [PEN-L] The economic situation in Iran
This may be an a tangent but the situation in Iran could have been much better if they avoided sectarianism and got involved with the resistance in Iraq. now too late... The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php
Re: [PEN-L] crisis article
Maybe too late for this but there is little mention about the role of Iraqi resistance, which is to credited for holding the hegemon at bay, whilst others paly. - Original Message From: MICHAEL YATES [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 6:42:29 PM Subject: crisis article For all of those out there who think a crisis in the economy is on the horizon, see http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/gindin090207.html for some sobering thoughts. Sam Gindin is a first-rate thinker. Michael Yates Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_tools.html
[PEN-L] get samart- chaos and alqaeda
To a large extent the alqaeda motif resembles the 'chaos' in the get smart motif... where a good cop maxwell smart chases the chaos guys everywhere. i never thought that someting so silly could become reality. only in the pull the wool over the eyes wooly world of defunct imperialism. Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection. Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/features_spam.html
Re: [PEN-L] obscene and ostentatious wealth
in middle east also there disastroue conditions in iraq and palestine and lebanon.. and now the bank and the fund are meddling with syria and inflation on principal commodities is near 15% two year running- wages holding steady- exchange rate holding steady - genie coefficient rising- the reform package that is being supervised by the IMF is hurting the poor and swelling the assets of the rich in dollars. it seems the syrian regime is so pliant that it is saying to itself let us make a gesture of good will on the economic side so the the americans and their allies will spare us - Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games.
Re: [PEN-L] The Great Dollar Crash of 2007
in my recent draft article that i sent to you the last paragraph says: However, in as much as the growth of US capital can be dependent on the growth in global tensions, the pricing of oil in dollars and resource inflows, it will also reveal itself to be independent of that. Such independence manifests itself primarily as the differences within the circle of world capital (inter-imperialist rivalry) over the division of resources from the Near East, and secondly, but concomitant to that, as the needs of US capital reaches a threshold point requiring further adjustment or a devaluing of the wealth holdings in the dollar. In light of the ballooning debts of the US, the adjustment required here will be set by a new policy requiring concessions on its imperial ranking more so than just devaluation exercise a la plaza accord. It is here that one might expect the tables to turn inside the US. The trend within the US calling for the normalization of conditions with the Arabs re-surges strongly at this very point as a reflection of these predicaments. Up until the demise of the Soviet Union, the differences over the redistribution of resources amongst the advanced economic powers have been, for the greater part, mediated through politically engineered mechanisms. That is no longer the case, and the US is just about to become an unbearable burden on its imperial partners consuming much of the wealth of others with little guarantees on future returns. there is a personal wish in that, and, i do not know when. but there is a French movie, i think in which Pierre Richard plays the role of a activist whose father owns a weapons factory, and in this movie... the weapon manufacturer has a map of the world in 3 colours: red white and pink. red countries are at war, which he says are good for business white are the countries he hated because they are at peace and pink were countries that could be potentially at war. and in that map Switzerland was pink and the police officer who just arrested his son asks him why is Switzerland pink and he answers: it is a personal dream of mine. recalling of course the jealousy that is there between the french bourgeois whose former domestics in the early twentieth century were swiss who later hit it rich thanks to banking secrecy and a good war - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2007 4:56:17 PM Subject: Re: The Great Dollar Crash of 2007 On 2/8/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: sorry i meant inter imperialist rivalry is no longer as intense between the advanced formation. I see. No question about it, for sure. differences in the imperialist camp become acute over natural resources in the near east Do you see this happening, any time in the near future? -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/ Need a quick answer? Get one in minutes from people who know. Ask your question on www.Answers.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] The Great Dollar Crash of 2007
sorry i meant inter imperialist rivalry is no longer as intense between the advanced formation. differences in the imperialist camp become acute over natural resources in the near east and to the extent to which the US cannot deliver on its debt to old the colonialist who are partners in crime.. in a sense the more the US issues debt the more it will need war to make good on its debt thru control or thru heightened tensions ensuring that matters of security were just as important for economic performance... meaning investors take their money to the US because it is safer than elsewhere. the EU is not sloid on the security front and its southern belt could be reignited at any time. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Wednesday, February 7, 2007 4:31:34 PM Subject: Re: The Great Dollar Crash of 2007 On 2/7/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The genius of American empire is that everyone is a partner in crime. You said it. Ironically, the state most defiant of the American empire -- Venezuela -- is also among the most dependent on the American market. so in that fiat dollar, the us military and its ability to presume operations abroad is a principal component. The WSJ says the Iraq War is cheap, compared to the Vietnam War: Comparisons to Vietnam are tempting but Iraq isn't, at least yet, as costly as Vietnam, when compared to the overall economy. It's running about $100 billion a year, or about 1% of GDP. By the time it was over, Vietnam cost the equivalent of about 660 billion in today's dollars. Overall defense spending today is higher than it was during Vietnam, when adjusted for inflation, but is just about 4% of GDP (Deborah Solomon, How Six Years of War Didn't Strain Economy, 5 February 2006, A13). -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/ Never miss an email again! Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/
Re: [PEN-L] PEN-L should be announcing capitalism's shortcomings more than the Sun-Times
now capitalism i always thought is universal it is the general condition under which all else is subsumed. as a general condition that is one that includes at its tail end 50 least developed countries that are a tragedy of sort it has problems of a severe nature that in view of the wealth it generates could be solved with minimal cost in money but in tremendous cost in kind meaning it has to be subjected to another form of organization and distribution that many will not agree too. ever since these problems were discovered in rich and poor countries or in both as my universal condition posits there were two positions on the left: one says let us intervene at the opportune moment and the other says let us hurry this opportune moment. kautsky was in the first and Lenin says waiting is a crime - Original Message From: Perelman, Michael [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Wednesday, February 7, 2007 7:07:54 PM Subject: Re: PEN-L should be announcing capitalism's shortcomings more than the Sun-Times Doug wrote: Ok, suppose this is true. Then what? How do progressive economists turn this to their advantage? What's the political import of all this Godot-ish waiting? Doug asked how we could use information about the weakening economy. I was working for a big company for a while during the Vietnam War. At first, my antiwar discussions fell on deaf ears. Once the war seemed to be a factor in dropping the value of the company's stock, people suddenly wanted to hear what I had to say. I think that as the economy weakens, an opportunity opens to have a political effect. Understanding the nature of the problem, and even better being able to explain it as it unfolds, enhances that opportunity. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 michaelperelman.wordpress.com TV dinner still cooling? Check out Tonight's Picks on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/
Re: [PEN-L] The Great Dollar Crash of 2007
That seems to discount the other side of the coin and that is the US can honour its debt obligations by further military expansion, ergo, Iran, and, because everyone wants to keep a steady and universal medium of wealth holding, they will look the other way when Iran is bombed. The US boat has all the OECD and china on board. This is lifeboat theory transmuted into economics. The genius of American empire is that everyone is a partner in crime. The dollar might adjust downward for a while but only to the extent to which American military is overstretched and not by the size of fictitious capital altogether. so in that fiat dollar, the us military and its ability to presume operations abroad is a principal component. a bust like situation may occur when there is an unusually high claim of US national assets. When many who have dollars come to the US to buy equity and ports ( Dubai case) and airports. When the denationalisation of American assets occurs it is a signal that the state is receding, then and only then, or so I think for now, will a crash occur. ken hanly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: - Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.
[PEN-L] scathing Niebyl
http://www.marxistlibr.org/meth.html The issue here is the issue of scientific method, of theory. This issue has been dodged, and dodged most successfully, in the Anglo-American world up to this moment. It has been dodged by Marxists as much as by bourgeois social scientists. (I shall not be concerned here with the way this problem presents itself in the natural sciences.) The issue has been dodged successfully and for good material and historical reasons. These reasons constitute in fact in a major way the subject matter of the Baran-Sweezy work: they are to be found in the effects of first British and then American imperialism. It was the profitability of British and American imperialism that made it possible for Anglo-American social scientists to stop their inquiry into the world in which they live at the point of describing it without being forced, by the reality of emerging social contradictions, to analyze the nature of that reality. The same conditions which provided the largely external profits that corrupted, temporarily, large sections of the Anglo-American labor movement, also corrupted the Anglo-American intelligentsia into pragmatism, that a-theoretical attitude of the American people which is often described but rarely analyzed. Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. http://games.yahoo.com/games/front
Re: [PEN-L] Hizballah, Tehran, and Iraq
My take on this is to revise the history of Iraq in light of the new developments. Much of history was written by FOX and CNN day and day out. No one, in my opinion, should even attempt to copy that in particular the demonsation of Saddam. Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL
Re: [PEN-L] The New Saddam
Saddam invaded Iran without provocation, how could victors write history..by relying on the ignorance of journalists who would say that there was awar without provocationnow that is truly something Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food Drink QA. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=listsid=396545367
Re: [PEN-L] The New Saddam
the 1975 Algiers treaty meant the surrender of the Iraqi army to the north and the relinquishing of sovereignty over its only water way to the shah. the details of the diplomatic history when khomeini took over, the search of iraqi vessels entering shat al arab, military flights onto southern iraq, and in one instance Khomeini in a letter addressed the iraqi government as heathens. and much much more. my point is that there was never a dull moment. one must recall that the success of the US in destroying iraq is due in great part to the mullahs sectarian policies that put anti sunnism before anti imperialism and that gave reactionary arab regimes a platform a sectarian platform that could only bolster the american position. just look at the fate of nassrullah in lebanon. a sectaraian resistance looses even if it wins. yesterday nassrullah called for a lebansese front composed of all groups to liberate the shebaa farms. too little too late. he displaced the communist based national resistance front with the support of syria and iran, worst yet now syria is pulling away from iran and saying our relationship with iran is business like. there is no individual outside histroy even saddam - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Thursday, February 1, 2007 2:11:15 PM Subject: Re: The New Saddam On 2/1/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Saddam invaded Iran without provocation, how could victors write history..by relying on the ignorance of journalists who would say that there was awar without provocationnow that is truly something The people of Iraq certainly didn't ask Saddam Hussein to invade Iran, and they weren't as motivated to fight to take over Khuzestan as the Iranians were in the defense of their country. -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/ Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by Green Rating at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/
Re: [PEN-L] The new imperial war in Lebanon
the problem in lebanon and in iraq and in the region as a whole is that everyone forgets the abc of national liberation struggles and that is front formation. it is difficult to fight an anti imperialist war with shiites alone or sunnites alone. the really big war is in iraq and there iran and its subservient mullahs have been pro american. now thsi allowed the us to galvanize the sunnis into anti iranian positions. so later the US can do iran whilst the world watches on tv. iran will be hard pressed to recall that a united anti imperialist front in iraq is better than the bomb for its interests. - Original Message From: ken hanly [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 12:57:03 AM Subject: The new imperial war in Lebanon Why Fisk is wrong about Lebanon Sunday, 28 January 2007 By Mike Whitney This is how the conflict began in Lebanon. Outbreaks of sectarian hatred, appeals for restraint, promises of aid from Western and Arab nations and a total refusal to understand that this is how civil wars begin. Robert Fisk, World ignores Signs of Civil War in Lebanon UK Independent 1-27-07 Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food Drink QA. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=listsid=396545367
Re: [PEN-L] Hizballah, Tehran, and Iraq
The difficulty with progressive working class action in the near east nowadays is when the communist lag tremendously behind the fundementalist of every colour in numbers and impetus. There are two communist tents in downtown and 1000 or more shiite tents. it just looks like a token presence. - We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list.
[PEN-L] geopolitical rents are more important than oil rents
Below you will find para 132 and 133 of RECOVERY, RECONSTRUCTION, AND REFORM International Conference for Support to Lebanon 25 January 2007 http://www.finance.gov.lb/NR/rdonlyres/89C37627-828E-4626-9F00-9A6498BB4082/0/ParisIIIEngVersion.pdf As you can very well see that six families owning the domestic banking sector have lent to the state at exorbitant rates and accumulated amount of 40 b$ And now they say to the international donors give the governemnt money to pay back our interest or the country will go hell. of course the banks are in the governemnet as well of course many cannot afford to see another blood bath in the near east so they pay now project these gains on US meddling in the security of the enar east and discern from that how they can earn 2b$ a day in inflows and issue world cash with no end in site that is all the more argument for oil as not only valuable by itself but more so much more so as a means of control 132. Assuming no adverse developments occur and provided the government delivers on all its reform measures, the domestic effort will lead to significant reductions in the budget deficits and improvement in the primary surplus amounting to about 10% of GDP; nevertheless, these efforts alone will not be sufficient to reverse the debt dynamics. All things being equal, the debt-to-GDP ratio will remain at best at about 145% of GDP and the debt service will still eat up about 50% of total revenuea very high level of debt by international standards that could not be sustained in the long term. Generating larger primary surpluses over the long term would not be possible without upsetting the delicate social and political balance in the country. 133. Hence to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio over time, support the efforts of the Lebanese government, and improve the chances of success of the economic reform program, Lebanon will need the support of the international community. Lebanon hopes to receive financial assistance mainly in grants and highly concessional loans to bring down the debt-to-GDP ratio to a sustainable level, placing Lebanon on a promising and sustainable path out of the debt overhang. Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check. Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_tools.html
Re: [PEN-L] Socialism and Islam
there isn't a single veil that is a misconception. at the turn of the century nearly every rural community had its folkloric head dress and in rural communities there was no separation of the sexes because of the shallow division of labour. the present veil is the urban veil. if you look at egyptian films and egyptian society up 1990 you will see that the veil was almost non existent in the cities. the present, 1900 onwards, veil is homogeneous social symbol. the type and the shape of it indicate political allegiance. Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
Re: [PEN-L] Socialism and Islam
Lenin to be inexact says something to the effect that there are leftists only by name. in Palestine as well apart from the pflp which the biggest leftist group, small factions of the left were elitist and getting support from Arafat. in fact Arafat was using these leftists on the negotiating so as to make appear that the left carries the sell out of paletinain rights of return and other paraphernalia of this question. the genuine left is hated by both fatah and hammas more than they hate one another. does this complicate life a bit more. TV dinner still cooling? Check out Tonight's Picks on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/
[PEN-L] shouting on aljazeera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsIJGnXkfSA Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Why did Saddam become expendable?
My research tells me that the relationship of the former Iraqi regime with the US is exaggerated. the US nominally intervened to assist Iraq in its war against Iran because when Saddam started to loose after one year of fighting, they had to prop him, but it was more of a marriage of convenience since the US feared Iranian expansion. whilst Israel backed Iran (conta), and the stubborn mullah wanted to send more young men to heaven that is not stop the war. all the records speak of saddam wanting to stop as soon as he realsied he started losing. one interesting paper from Sweden, do not recall who, says that Saddam had to be done away with as soon as he insisted on stopping the war. circles of the liberal left inflated the cozy relationship of Saddam with the US. Iraq was a soviet satellite who's number was up as soon as the cold war was over. that is it. context is everything. all you have to imagine is a situation where for a long time iraq is sandwiched between arch allies of the US, turkey saudi arabia and iran and realise that sooner or later it has to go. - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 2:45:17 AM Subject: Re: Why did Saddam become expendable? On 1/12/07, Rui Correia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Other US creations, offspring around the world have become embarassing butchers - yet the US continues to cover up for them. So, what was it about Saddam so so ticked off the Bushes I read somewhere that the US turned against Saddam when he nationalized Iraqi oil. But I don't know if that's true or not. Is there an expert in the house? -- Jim Devine / Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it, because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. -- Stephen Colbert. TV dinner still cooling? Check out Tonight's Picks on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/
[PEN-L] here's an interesting quotation
US external commercial and capital accounts are an expression of what it implies for the United States to have modelled its whole economy along the needs of contemporary money-bearing capital and become, both for its own financial investors and those of wealth owners, governments with export surpluses and funds from all other parts of the world their heartland. The Iraqi adventure with its tragic consequences for the Iraqi people must be related to these very particular economic relationships between the United States and the rest of the world. The economic foundations and needs of contemporary imperialism François Chesnais (February 2005) Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food Drink QA. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=listsid=396545367
Re: [PEN-L] Polish archbishop quits over communist links
the priest in my friend's village, he now tells me, used to divulge the confessions of the women in his parish after a couple of drinks. when he found that the audience liked what he said, he was asking the women for more details so as to liven the sunday lunch. It got to a point he said when as a pre teen child he would shy away from looking at the beautiful grocer's wife of whom he knew some pretty exciting tales. I presume now she is very old. - Original Message From: Eugene Coyle [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, January 8, 2007 8:32:55 AM Subject: Re: Polish archbishop quits over communist links He quit over supplying information to the secret police. US bishops cooperate routinely with police agencies and no one objects. On Jan 7, 2007, at 10:26 PM, soula avramidis wrote: Do they quit over child abuse or is it just communism which is worst? Polish archbishop quits over communist links By Jan Cienski in Warsaw Published: January 7 2007 17:37 | Last updated: January 7 2007 18:04 Less than two days after becoming archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus on Sunday resigned at the request of the Vatican following revelations that he had agreed in the 1970s to co-operate with Poland’s communist-era secret police. The resignation came during a ceremonial mass that had been planned to welcome the archbishop. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cea4535a-9e72-11db-ac03-779e2340.html __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Spinning the Execution of Saddam Hussein
whatever the US does will only be smart in appearance because it is the power at the helm of history. the corrosion to empire is deep in its underbelly and cannot be easily seen. Am I wrong in thinking that Iran is the operational ally of the US in Iraq. None of the Arab commoners are stooges, or naive enough to think that the pro-american arab regimes are not the ennemies of the masses and that the space of protest that they are allowed is limited and is meant to inflict damage on Iran. but for four long years, the mullahs have sided with the US. that is thousands of Arab lives. and that is why they are upset. let us read beyond the symbolism of street protest. two wrongs make two wrongs. and let us steer clear of bashing the arab especially those of the blood bath of the fertile crescent in syria palestine lebaonon and iraq. let us corner iran in supporting a broadly based people's warfare against imperialism for the arab regimes are the remote control police of imperialism and even the smallest arab kid i am sure knows this. but is it not funny that iran and israel shared similar sentiments in respect to saddam. iran is a perepheral neo mecamtilist formation with all trivial elements of natiolaism, its racism and fanfare. the battle for iraq is the battle of the international working class not the battle for iranian nukes. the pro saddam demos will i hope push it into action so that it changes its image and after that the US will look stupid in hanging saddam. every smart side has a stupid side. please let us not trivilaise complex histroical processes. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Saturday, January 6, 2007 12:11:54 PM Subject: Spinning the Execution of Saddam Hussein The execution of Saddam Hussein was the smartest move that Washington has made, the greatest gift to its Arab clients -- especially Riyadh, Cairo, and Amman -- in recent times, who badly needed something like this to deflect their populaces' anger away from their support for Tel Aviv and Washington fighting against the Palestinians and Lebanese, even in the midst of Israel's Lebanon War last year. A concerted campaign to posthumously rehabilitate Saddam Hussein, shield Washington from responsibility for his execution as well as for its wars in the Islamic world, and use the execution in its ongoing campaign against Iran is on. Arab commoners who buy this spin deserve to have their shares of oil money pocketed by the Arab power elite and financial centers of the multinational empire. -- Yoshie __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Spinning the Execution of Saddam Hussein
i agree but i also add that we need a lot more than regional. more now than before especially as the retreat in humanist philosophy and the ideology of socilism allow the fundementalist to fill a void. the needs could be partitioned at all levels international regional and national... but iraq as you may know is a sore spot and in the order of priorities iraq comes before the mullah regime. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Sunday, January 7, 2007 2:05:03 PM Subject: Re: Spinning the Execution of Saddam Hussein On 1/7/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: the battle for iraq is the battle of the international working class not the battle for iranian nukes Nukes are a secondary issue for the US-Israel vs. Iran, to be sure, just as they were a secondary issue for the US-Israel vs. Iraq -- more means than ends. What Washington has in mind isn't a battle for Iraq, though. It has in its sight -- correctly imho -- a battle for the control of *the entire oil reserves in Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf states* (as you know, the Gulf states have the biggest proven oil reserves in the world, and the combined oil reserves of Iran and Iraq rival those of the Gulf states). What we need to have is a regional vision, not a country vision. -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/ __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Lebanon's Labor Unions Call for a Sit-in to Protest Proposed Tax Hikes
yes it is more sectarian than not on all sides. sectarainism goes by name - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Sunday, January 7, 2007 1:24:18 PM Subject: Re: Lebanon's Labor Unions Call for a Sit-in to Protest Proposed Tax Hikes On 1/7/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 2. this time it will be sunnis and shiis This being Lebanon, the divide among the Christians is equally significant. 4. this is not your usual democracy, the government does not mediate class differences. it mediates sect differences. The Lebanese government had a function of freezing the confessional balance of power at the end of the civil war in Lebanon and keeping (relative) social peace before the so-called Cedar Revolution. Not any more. -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/ __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Spinning the Execution of Saddam Hussein
it is not who's on first and who's on second. Iraq is a battlefield to which Iran is contributing by aiding and abetting the US invasion. I do not think you see the severity of the Iranian mistake here. let us not mix by reification the world of ideas to the developemnt on the grounds. one thing at a time. the Ummah never dies, it just goes to sleep for a while. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Sunday, January 7, 2007 5:12:21 PM Subject: Re: Spinning the Execution of Saddam Hussein On 1/7/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i agree but i also add that we need a lot more than regional. more now than before especially as the retreat in humanist philosophy and the ideology of socilism allow the fundementalist to fill a void. the needs could be partitioned at all levels international regional and national... but iraq as you may know is a sore spot and in the order of priorities iraq comes before the mullah regime. As long as people think that Iraq comes before Iran or vice versa, Washington will have its way. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Polish archbishop quits over communist links
Do they quit over child abuse or is it just communism which is worst? Polish archbishop quits over communist links By Jan Cienski in Warsaw Published: January 7 2007 17:37 | Last updated: January 7 2007 18:04 Less than two days after becoming archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus on Sunday resigned at the request of the Vatican following revelations that he had agreed in the 1970s to co-operate with Poland’s communist-era secret police. The resignation came during a ceremonial mass that had been planned to welcome the archbishop. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cea4535a-9e72-11db-ac03-779e2340.html __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group
I am of the opinion that regime in Iran will do itself in because it is more sectarian than anti imperialist, though it is both. and sectarianiasm conceals of course the inetrest of a small clique that hoards rents in a neo-mercaltisit structure that is in need of keeping its hold on deomestic markets whilst its growth elsewhere ie the gulf must be conducted on its own terms where it will surely confront the US at least at this level. four years have passed while US troops confront little oppositon in the south of iraq. they provided the US with the perfect divide and rule scheme. anti iranian sentiemnt is now high in the muslim world. so the us in iraq has managed to destroy iraq and now it is turning the tables on iran. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] EMW i.e. ellen wood
while US and British soldiers enjoy an Iranian sponsored holiday in southern Iraq, here's friend take on economics snip from a friend This is wrong. “War without end” answers to the particular needs of US imperialism, those which have emerged as a result of the US’s particularly close identification with the interests of dividend and interest-bearing capital and led to a quite unique form of dependency by the United States on the rest of the world. Here EMW is handicapped even more strongly than before by her weakness in economics and so her call on notions as inconsistent as that of “surplus imperialism”. I am in fact taken aback by her apparent disregard for the discussion (which began well before she finished and indeed started her book), about the origins, implications and long-term viability of the United States’ external and budgetary deficits and the brutal fall of its rate of domestic saving. A parallel surprise is the absence of any discussion about the dollar as a basis for US hegemony. EMW may feel that this aspect has been given too much stress by some authors, but this is no justification for disregarding the monopoly held up to very recently by the United States over money-creation for the currency acting as “money of the world”. Indeed this monopoly must be identified as one of the factors leading to the contradictions in which the US economy is now trapped. Using this monopoly coupled with the United States’ strong advance in the possession of well-developed, under-utilised financial markets, the US government under Reagan and Paul Volcker, chairman of the Fed, built from 1980 onwards new forms of support for accumulation in the United States_. A sharp rise in interest rates and the exchange rate of the dollar, coupled with financial liberalisation attracted massive amounts of foreign “savings”. These served to finance large scale government expenditure, notably on arms (e.g. the very expensive Star Wars programme) and to help manufacturing offset overproduction partly and temporarily. The really lasting result was the qualitative boost given to interest-bearing capital as a result of the shift to the “securitization” of government debt (e.g. the shift from the tapping of resources within the banking system to the auctioning of Treasury Bonds on specialised financial markets at very high interest rates, 8-10% real interest rates over most of the 1980’s). The very rapid, almost exponential growth in the value of assets held by institutional investors (insurance companies, Mutual Funds and Pension Funds) in that period was not as it became later a simple outcome of fictitious capital’s mode of “reproduction”. It represented a genuine transfer of wealth to interest-bearing capital amounting to significant percentages of National Domestic Product. The channel was the government servicing of debt through the budget. While the transfer affected all tax-payers, the structure of the fiscal system meant that workers and poorer people were hit hardest. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda
Iran will stop itself because it is pursuing sectraian pro american policies in iraq and lebanon. Arab new year greeting: May the flees of one thousand camels infest the ass of the person who screws up your year and may his arms grow too short to scratch his ass... __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda
There is more to this than meets the eye. An anti imperialist agenda requires a lining up of anti imperialist forces under more secular democratic and universal values. When so called divine victories are achieved in the south of Lebanon, one must also recall that there was little left to plough by the Israeli bombardment in 5000 square miles, whilst in Iraq the very mullahs that Iran bred were backing the marines. In strategic calculations every US soldier that falls in Iraq is worth a thousand Israelis, and Iran is saving US soldiers in Iraq. Sectarian Iranian policies split the rank of the anti imperialist Arab populations and fostered the presence of imperialism. Iran's sphere of influence is not in Palestine, it is more about the Gulf and, with or without bomb, a semi sovereign state on the Gulf is unallowable to US capital, when the US strips Iran of sovereignty than it will gift wrap the bomb. But why should it do that when the Iranians are ignorantly assisting the US in its endeavour. It will take five to nine years before the bomb is made, by then the sunni/Shiite divide will do iran in from the inside. If not, an Iranian bomb will be just the excuse America needs to nuke Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran would win if had not relied solely on the Shiites of the Arab world and made a concession by which it sacrificed Arab blood for the arrogance of Persian glory. Narrow sectarian and nationalist regimes is just what the US needs to win in the middle east. A regime that started its career by massacring the communist is at heart not anti imperialist. just look at the political land space in the Arab world today and see how Sunnis and shias are killing each other and tell me how the hell can a successful anti imperialist movement be born out of this. Just because socialist regimes are springing up in Latin America does not mean that Iran is contributing to this, it is the baathist résistance which is doing this. Iran now is struggling to cleanse the persian language of the Arabic in it, that is an indication of arab hatred in Iran disgiused under Shiite islam. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, January 2, 2007 12:13:10 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda On 1/2/07, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Iran will stop itself because it is pursuing sectraian pro american policies in iraq and lebanon. If Washington thought that Tehran were pursuing pro-American policies in Iraq and Lebanon, it might give Iran a nuclear bomb or two, gift-wrapped and adorned with bows. :- Funny it doesn't. -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/ __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda
maybe I was too quick, never really written such a lengthy response to anyone but you but let just reemphasize that there is a difference between tokenism and reall core issues such as the situation in iraq. but here it goes: Tehran's foreign policy has never solely relied on the Shi'is. Iran's long alliance with Syria, a predominantly Sunni nation ruled by the Ba'athists of the Alawi faith, and support for Hamas, the group in whose boycott pro-Washington Arab regimes and banks have participated, demonstrate, its alliances are not determined by faith but ideology and realpolitik. its faith is its ideology. Syria's regime and hizbollah are vehemnetly sectarian and anti sunni ergo anti arbist. support for hammas is token, it is the jihadist that it supports most and there still it backfires in so far as the overall struggle is concerned. Do not get me wrong i am not saying that iran is not anti US, it is just doing such a poor job at it that in the end it so appears and so happens to be more pro imperialist where it counts most and that is in the struggle for liberation of Iraq. A US defeat in iraq at the hands of progressive social forces is a victory for human kind. Most importantly, Iraq was already divided under Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, which is one of the reasons why the opponents of the US occupation cannot easily unite themselves. The most consistent opponent of the occupation on the Shi'i side has been Moktada al-Sadr. We cannot forget that his father was killed by Saddam Hussein's regime. Sadr needs to let bygones be bygones and make peace with Ba'athists and Sunni tribal and religious leaders who were once close to Saddam Hussein, not just Sunnis who always opposed Saddam Hussein. But that won't be easy for him (or anyone in his position). There is no doubt that saddam was repressive to his political opponents but without sectraianim. it is said he was harsher on the sunnis. you cannot say that iraq was already divided, american and iranin intelligence were planting bombs on both sides fomenting civil wars. it took at least two years of hard work to make the sunni shiite divide. in fact many tribes are both sunnis and shias. the only significant wras in the twentieth century were by arabs against the brits. the sunni shiite divide or picture has been grossly exaggerated to undo a whole country, . you cannot ask Moktada to join forces with anyone especially sunnis, you may forget he is shia clergymen you want to search the ethos opf that culture to see what I mean. when iran backs someone like that it means to make the sectarian divide too steep. sermons of this sort will not do now. and it is the hakim and moktada types that make the pivot of iranian external policies. in iraq where it couunts for most in the anti imperialist struggle, iran plays sectarian and dirty. not to forget that the allawis of syria are a shiite sect vehemnetly anti sunni anti arabist therefore. so iran here plays foul too. Sadr also needs to decisively eclipse or subordinate Sistani, Hakim, and other sectarian Shi'i notables. That, too, won't be easy. that is impossible not even hassan nasrullah who is accidently fighting in lebanon can eclipse those marjiyat. On the Sunni side, the international jihadists of the Al Qaeda tendency, who have been busier bombing Shi'i civilians than coalition and Iraqi troops, also must be defeated, but it's not clear who has what it takes to pull that off. these are american intelligence assets Iran now is struggling to cleanse the persian language of the Arabic in it, that is an indication of arab hatred in Iran disgiused under Shiite islam. If the Iranians had hated Arabic so much, they would have followed the Turkish example and dropped the Arabic script. Among the Iranians, it is not the religious but the secular, Westernized ones -- especially those in the diaspora -- who are Persian nationalists. After all, the language of the Koran is Arabic. well i will send you this info later and juxtapositions of the sort are not valid. Iran and turkey are far apart historically. many thanks for an exciting conversation. Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/ __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Is There a Sunni Majority in Iraq?
Is There a Sunni Majority in Iraq? Iraqis By the Numbers By Faruq Ziada* http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2006%5C12%5C12-28%5Czopinionz%5C963.htmdismode=xts=28/12/2006%2003:36:21%20%C3%A3 The United States based its policy on Iraq on two primary so-called facts: 1. The Sunnis are a 20 % minority. 2. The Sunni minority and Saddam Hussein ruled the Shiite majority in Iraq. but As Nationalities Arabs 82 - 84% Kurds, Turks, etc. 16 - 18% Religions Moslems 95 - 98% Christians and others 2 - 5% Moslem Sects Sunnis 60 - 62% Sunni Arabs 42 - 44% Sunni Kurds and Turks 16 - 18% Shiites 38 - 40% Shiite Kurds and Turks 2 - 4% Percentage of Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, and Kurds __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Even if the world is abig piece of shit....
happy new year! __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] The sense that war makes
http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-vision_reflections/war_sense_3970.jsp violence and war are also seen as exclusively negative in their consequences. This view stretches back to the 19th- and early 20th-century liberal interpretation of war; it was neatly captured in a World Bank report in June 2003 that argued war is development in reverse. This vision of violence is flawed. Violence and war are not mindless. And despite their awful destruction their consequences are not always wholly negative. To see them this way is ahistorical as well as inaccurate the naivety with which most so-called civil wars are perceived leads to an ahistorical and simplistic vision of reconstruction. It is ahistorical in its poor understanding of violence and development. It is ahistorical in its ignorance of earlier episodes of reconstruction (after the American civil war, after the two world wars, for example). And it is usually ahistorical in its failure to consider the context of state-building challenges (as the current vogue has it) in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Somalia, or East Timor. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] In Somalia, a Reckless U.S. Proxy War
Ethiopia's war will be very costly to its territorial unity given the ratio of the muslim population and Somalis on the iside and the Ogadin province. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 4:08:01 AM Subject: In Somalia, a Reckless U.S. Proxy War http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/26/opinion/edlone.php In Somalia, a reckless U.S. proxy war Salim Lone Tribune Media Services Tuesday, December 26, 2006 NAIROBI __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] People's Revolt in Lebanon
This is a falsification of fact. Obviously mr. bazzi comes from Bint Jbail and he is a shiite. the poorest in lebanon are the sunnis of the countryside especially in akkar and western bekaa. the shiites are better of though still poor. tobacco growing allowed southern lebanon a cash crop that allowed the bazzi type this cartton like analyis of asocial situation. class formation in the lebanon is not so straight forward. with the exception of beirut and mount lebanon, the country side is generally poor. the rents from the state are shared along sectarian lines. hizbollah and amal are purely sectarian parties that have displaced the communist after 1990 aided by iran and syria, recalling that imperialism has a social agenda in the near east. That is why it was easy for the hariris to rally poor sunnites with them under the pretext that the shiites will hog the state rents. so in short the communist party line in lebanon is we are with hizbollah as a resistance force but not as a shiite sectarian party vying for a share of the loot from the rentier state. the ideological vacuum left behind by the collapse of the soviet union is huge allowing now for greater disarticulation between social forms of bonding and the material conditions by which people earn their living. as one trade unioinist says it is difficult to get two workers from different sects who suffer from the same living conditions to unite against their patrons. the worse is yet to come because the US needs a sunni shiite divide to bomb iran. so the near east is as michel chossudovsky once called it a war theatre. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 6:01:52 PM Subject: People's Revolt in Lebanon Surprisingly good for The Nation. -- Yoshie http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070108/bazzi People's Revolt in Lebanon by MOHAMAD BAZZI [from the January 8, 2007 issue] Beirut Ever since Hezbollah and its allies began an open-ended protest against the US-backed government on December 1, Beirut's gilded downtown--built for wealthy Lebanese and foreign tourists--has become more authentically Lebanese. Where Persian Gulf sheiks once ate sushi, families now sit in abandoned parking lots, having impromptu picnics, the smell of kebabs cooked over coals wafting through the air. Young men lounge on plastic chairs, smoking apple-scented water pipes, and occasionally break out into debke, the Lebanese national dance. Most protesters are too poor to afford $4 caffe lattes, but men hawking shots of strong Arabic coffee for 30 cents apiece are doing a brisk trade. Nearly all businesses are shuttered, but a few enterprising store owners have figured out how to cater to the crowd. One hair salon converted itself into a sandwich shop, selling cheese on bread with a cup of tea for $1. The smiling cashier works behind a counter filled with L'Oréal hair products. I never came to downtown before these protests. I can't afford to come here. If I ate a sandwich here, I'd be broke for a week, says Emad Matairek, a 35-year-old carpenter from the dahiyeh, the Shiite-dominated suburbs of Beirut. It's well-known that this area was not built for us. The protests are being portrayed in much of the Western media as a sectarian battle, or a coup attempt--engineered by Hezbollah's two main allies, Syria and Iran--against a US-backed Lebanese government. Those are indeed factors underlying the complex and dangerous political dance happening in Beirut. But the biggest motivator driving many of those camped out in downtown isn't Iran or Syria, or Sunni versus Shiite. It's the economic inequality that has haunted Lebanese Shiites for decades. It's a poor and working-class people's revolt. In Riad Solh Square, amid dozens of white tents erected for Hezbollah supporters to sleep in, there is a stage with a huge TV screen and rows of loudspeakers mostly positioned toward the Grand Serail, the Ottoman-era palace where Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and his Cabinet are hunkered down. Between the tents and the palace, behind eight-foot-high coils of barbed wire, there are hundreds of Lebanese soldiers toting M-16s and sitting atop armored vehicles. Every night thousands of people gather in front of the stage, within earshot of the Serail, demanding that Siniora either resign or accept a national unity government that gives Hezbollah and its allies greater power. A major theme highlighted by the protesters is that Siniora is backed by the Bush Administration--and that alliance did little to help Lebanon during last summer's thirty-four-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. A few days into the sit-in, Hezbollah hung a large banner from a building showing Siniora embracing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, over a collage of dead Lebanese children Photoshopped onto his back. It reads, Condy--Thanks, a reference to Siniora's meeting with Rice during the war, when US officials
Re: [PEN-L] People's Revolt in Lebanon
surprisingly bad but so little comes out of the region that even this sounds good - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 6:01:52 PM Subject: People's Revolt in Lebanon Surprisingly good for The Nation. -- Yoshie __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] here's a quotation du jour for degustation (2006 vintage)
In an expanding world economy, where many raw materials are rapidly becoming strategic commodities, the poor ‘stand in the way’ of access to these raw materials, not unlike the native American ‘Indians’ being a hindrance to the settlers’ use of land. For some United States conservatives, placing the poor on ‘reservations’ is an option to be seriously considered. Only a decade ago, two American authors recommended the establishment of a custodial state in a much publicized book: by custodial state, we have in mind a high-tech and more lavish version of the Indian reservation for some substantial minority of the nation’s population, while the rest of America tries to go about its business (Herrnstein and Murray, 1994: 526). The MDGs are uncomfortably close to combining the consumption-based view of poverty with the idea of establishing reservations where the basic needs of the poor are taken care of while the rest of the world gets along with its business. p18 Reinert, E.S. Development and Social Goals: Balancing Aid and Development to Prevent 'Welfare Colonialism'. UN/DESA, 2006, Working Paper No. 14. - Original Message From: soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 12:21:58 PM Subject: Re: People's Revolt in Lebanon surprisingly bad but so little comes out of the region that even this sounds good - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 6:01:52 PM Subject: People's Revolt in Lebanon Surprisingly good for The Nation. -- Yoshie __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Saddam Hussein Loses 'Appeal', To Hang Within 30 Days
the way in which liberal intellectuals fell victim to the demonisisng of saddam hussein in and about an area they know little of by pathetic bourgeois moral standards makes them inadvertant criminals against humanity. and if some think this is the end of the story, let them just sit back and watch the news in the next ten years. america is winning this war, thanks in part to the tacit partcipation and ignorance of its liberal intellectual that mix maorality with politics williy nilly - Original Message From: Leigh Meyers [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 6:42:48 PM Subject: Saddam Hussein Loses 'Appeal', To Hang Within 30 Days Suggestion: The perfect day to pull US troops out of Iraq… anytime within 30 days. Saddam Hussein loses his appeal and is sentenced to hang within 30 days. [December 26 2006] Travus T. Hipp Morning News Commentary: It’s ‘Boxing Day’… Canada Aside, Boxing Day Is When Americans Box Up Their Unwanted ‘Gifts’ And Return Them… 100 Billion Dollars Worth Of Toasters, Ties, And Socks http://leighm.net/blog/2006/12/26/tth_061226/ “All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know …Until Now.” The Rest Of The News: Bush meets with his “WAR” cabinet. Robert Gates back from Iraq after meeting with the troops, whose commanders have apparently been coerced into supporting the ’surge’ tactic… U.S. Body Count: *2978*, 5 more than died in the WTC attack, due to our continuing illegal prosecution of war on Iraq A Spanish internalist has been flown to Cuba to treat Fidel Castro Somalia/Ethiopia: They’ve got their war on! Sitrep. Nigerian rebels blow up another oil pipeline. U.N security council passes a weakened Iran sanctions resolution. -30- __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] Learning Turkish
The last time i heard the phrase Learning Turkish was in Anakra one or two years back, where a pretty solid english marxist scholar met the man of his life who happened to be a turk at a late dinner party, after which he said I want to learn turkish I wish i could speak turkish. - Original Message From: Sabri Oncu [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 9:09:34 AM Subject: Learning Turkish As I did not have to worry about learning Turkish as much as Louis did, since I was born into that language, let me tell you this: The Turkish we speak since the birth of the republic is an ever changing language: I was not able to fully understand newspaper articles from the 1940s when I was in my 20s and I doubt that someone in his 20s in these days can fully understand such articles from the 1970s any better than I did 20 years ago. Here is an excellent book on the last 300 years of the Ottomans: The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 by Donald Quataert http://www.amazon.com/Ottoman-1700-1922-Approaches-European-History/dp/0521547822 I tell you this much: I am NOT TURKISH. I am OSMANLI (that is, OTTOMAN, as you know it). Best, Sabri __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] question on imperialism from Loren Goldner From Zimbabwe
students require patience and patience is a virute. maybe cannabis can do the trick - Original Message From: Rui Correia [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 11:18:49 AM Subject: Re: question on imperialism from Loren Goldner From Zimbabwe [a bit confused about the “from” Loren Goldner in the subject, but here is a response to what is said by the ‘student’] Tobacco is one of Zimbabwe’s major crops, but this is certainly not what this person has been smoking How can she go on about exchange rates, loans etc, and not a word about Mugabe, his destructive policies, how these drove away capital how he destroyed the agricultural sector, how corruption and cronyism saw to it that confiscated assets were parcelled off among the elite …. Then again, with prices and inflation what they are in Zimbabwe and cannabis growing wild and easily in any back yard throughout any country in Southern Africa, I could also write stuff like that about the Zimbabwean economy. Rui Correia Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant 2 Cutten St, Horison, Roodepoort, Johannesburg, South Africa Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336 Cell (+27) (0) 83-368-1214 Quando a verdade é substituída pelo silêncio, o silêncio é uma mentira - Yevgeny Yevtushenko When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie - Yevgeny Yevtushenko -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of soula avramidis Sent: 12 December 2006 08:53 To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Subject: [PEN-L] question on imperialism from Loren Goldner From Zimbabawe a student from Harare who says the internet will not go far: Certainly an interesting expose. What Loren Goldner asserts happened to Japan, as its reserves got reduced by 32%, and contends, China is likely to go through and see its owed loans and reserves reduced as it devalues to the expected RMB4:US$, is but a prototype or mirror image of what was done to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was seduced with supposedly generous loans when its exchange rate was Z$1:US$2 at independence in 1980. With external debt pegged at 3.4% of GDP in 1980, this rose to 40% by 1990, 62% by 1995 and 80% by 2000, and to anybodyʼs guess to the now declining GDP. Exchange rate changes at the appropriate time of transfer form a critical basis for the primitive accumulation. Most of Zimbabweʼs external debt was maturing around 1991, 1996-2000 periods. The Z$ plummets from Z$0.50:US$ in 1980 to Z$2.27 in 1989; $5 in 1991; $9 in 1995;$18 in 1997; $37 in 1998 ; $55 in 2000; and now $300 000 and many times over on the parallel market. As all this happens with no relevance to purchasing power parity, Zimbabwe has to sacrifice more export goods to meet the initial loan injections with value transfer in some kind of Gypsy great trick as it were. Like happened during the colonial imperialism, this exploitation will require local collaborators, and these are strategically positioned among the ruling elite in both ruling and opposition parties. Thus Zimbabweans demonise each other, are demonised, and when all is said and done exploited. Because manufacturing, which was around 25% of GDP has now fallen to below 10%, the exploitation has now gone to primary commodities including labour force, with over 20% of its skilled workforce now abroad. Increased mineral extraction for export, which is not rewarded by conspicuous forex earnings. Minerals such as platinum, which are known to be mined with lot of other raw high value minerals like gold; silver, copper, etc. are exported as raw platinum, extracted across the border/s and value accorded to raw platinum only. Talk of primitive accumulation, it is probably gone worse than the slave trade error, save for the human face and bits of human rights funding to divert people from the core problem. Your stomach is the slave driver. At the heart of the imperialist modus operandi is the existence a local collaborative cluster, with some semblance of legitimacy, and a local and international agenda to divert the genuinely concerned and more empathetic from reading the signs. Harare, 7/12/06 Check out the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Oil producers shun dollar
what would it take to recress global imbalances and redress falling dollar? Answer: the US has to bomb Iran. very unusual or is it http://www.ft.com/cms/s/277471c2-8889-11db-b485-779e2340.html Oil producers shun dollar By Haig Simonian in Zurich and Javier Blas and Carola Hoyos in London Published: December 10 2006 20:11 | Last updated: December 10 2006 20:11 Oil producing countries have reduced their exposure to the dollar to the lowest level in two years and shifted oil income into euros, yen and sterling, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements. The revelation in the latest BIS quarterly review, published on Monday, confirms market speculation about a move out of dollars and could put new pressure on the ailing US currency. Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] question on imperialism from Loren Goldner From Zimbabawe
a student from Harare who says the internet will not go far: Certainly an interesting expose. What Loren Goldner asserts happened to Japan, as its reserves got reduced by 32%, and contends, China is likely to go through and see its owed loans and reserves reduced as it devalues to the expected RMB4:US$, is but a prototype or mirror image of what was done to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was seduced with supposedly generous loans when its exchange rate was Z$1:US$2 at independence in 1980. With external debt pegged at 3.4% of GDP in 1980, this rose to 40% by 1990, 62% by 1995 and 80% by 2000, and to anybody’s guess to the now declining GDP. Exchange rate changes at the appropriate time of transfer form a critical basis for the primitive accumulation. Most of Zimbabwe’s external debt was maturing around 1991, 1996-2000 periods. The Z$ plummets from Z$0.50:US$ in 1980 to Z$2.27 in 1989; $5 in 1991; $9 in 1995;$18 in 1997; $37 in 1998 ; $55 in 2000; and now $300 000 and many times over on the parallel market. As all this happens with no relevance to purchasing power parity, Zimbabwe has to sacrifice more export goods to meet the initial loan injections with value transfer in some kind of Gypsy great trick as it were. Like happened during the colonial imperialism, this exploitation will require local collaborators, and these are strategically positioned among the ruling elite in both ruling and opposition parties. Thus Zimbabweans demonise each other, are demonised, and when all is said and done exploited. Because manufacturing, which was around 25% of GDP has now fallen to below 10%, the exploitation has now gone to primary commodities including labour force, with over 20% of its skilled workforce now abroad. Increased mineral extraction for export, which is not rewarded by conspicuous forex earnings. Minerals such as platinum, which are known to be mined with lot of other raw high value minerals like gold; silver, copper, etc. are exported as raw platinum, extracted across the border/s and value accorded to raw platinum only. Talk of primitive accumulation, it is probably gone worse than the slave trade error, save for the human face and bits of human rights funding to divert people from the core problem. Your stomach is the slave driver. At the heart of the imperialist modus operandi is the existence a local collaborative cluster, with some semblance of legitimacy, and a local and international agenda to divert the genuinely concerned and more empathetic from reading the signs. Harare, 7/12/06 Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] question on imperialism from Loren Goldner
another response from Africa Interesting. If this is all true, that I find interesting is the fact that then this is all planned, well thought out. The problem for me and what frustrates and exasperates me is that Africans are not planning, neither are we engaged in long range thinking. We have some very small minded people leading us with an overblown perception of our position in the global scope of things. We could obliterate ourselves off the face of the earth and not many in the West would be bothered. The West have think tanks. Some of their best minds paid to wake up everyday and think about the various issues of concern to their benefactors, which thoughts are listened to and used to influence policy. By the time something is happenning to us it has been thought out and planned for decades. By the time we figure out what is happening, we are cooked. So for me all I can say is that we need to be serious and realise that we are in te 21st century. It is scarry to think that the majority of Africans are not living in 21st century conditions. They are living their lives a century or 2 in the past. It is a shame and we need to get serious and more so our leaders. Any questions? Get answers on any topic at www.Answers.yahoo.com. Try it now.
Re: [PEN-L] What the Baker Report DOESN'T Say
Thursday: 57 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded http://antiwar.com/updates/ to say that the US lost is a smokescreen very much like the WMD that were not there. One nation goes to war to destroy another nation. Iraq has been nearly completely destroyed. Thursday: 57 Iraqis Killed, 10 Wounded http://antiwar.com/updates/ with this the arab peoples lost, the american people lost and the neocons won. now the balance of forces against the arab people will be so badly swayed against them such that they no longer control their natural resources. and continued insecurity in the near east will more and more highten global insecurity driving everyone to go the US with their money where it is safe. instability is just as good for US business as oil. - Original Message From: Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Friday, December 8, 2006 5:59:33 AM Subject: What the Baker Report DOESN'T Say Is it just me? I keep hearing reported that the Baker Report calls for all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by 2008. That is NOT at all what it says. Nor is this the strategy that underlies the Report. The U.S. may be going in a very different direction. 1) In the Report's view all U.S. combat brigades (i.e. as self-contained units) would merely be administratively dissolved by 2008. But after 2008 about half the combat troops would remain - *indefinitely* - either reflagged as embedded in Iraqi combat brigades, or operating in free standing units focusing on combating al-Quada (see pp 71-72). About half the troops not directly in combat would also remain after 2008 - indefinitely - for training, equipping, advising, force protection, and search and rescue as well as intelligence and support. This is estimated to amount to 70,000 to 80,000 troops (as compared to 140,000 today). See New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/world/middleeast/06report_summary.html?_r=1oref=sloginTheir The Study Group opposed ANY timetable for the withdrawal of this half of the U.S. combat troops (p.67). 2) There appears to be a clear strategy behind this approach. The U.S. troops will hunker down and wait out the Iraqi civil war. Their justification for their inaction/ineffectiveness will be that they are embedded with those elements of the Iraqi national army that do not dissolve into the civil war - and these remaining Iraqi brigades troops firmly intend to remain mostly in their barracks during that war. At the same time, crack U.S. combat troops, operating independently, will continue to try to keep al-Quada in check (but without the need to take casualties by holding territory or restoring control). By implication it is anticipated that, at some point, the warring sides of the civil war will simply wear themselves down, and be resigned to an accommodation that reflects the balance of forces - also accepting, in their exhaustion and horror at the massacre, the Pax Americana. The smaller footprint with far fewer U.S. casualties should buy enough time in the U.S, for the extended wait. [This is, in fact, similar to the scenario that was played out in the first 10 years of the Lebanese Civil War - a core of the Lebanese Army remained intact (and mostly in their barracks) from 1975 until February 1984. The army remained largely neutral and despite the dominance of Christian officers, Muslim and Druze troops stayed in the Lebanese national army until the same month as the final the withdrawal of the U.S. Marines. A further blow to the Army's neutrality came in 1987 when its Christian Commander (General Aoun, who is today aligned with Hezbollah and Syria) accepted the Presidency of the country contrary to the National Pact. But the relevant point that remains in most people's mind is that of an army and a facade of a national government that remain for a long time outside a civil war. And the ultimate acceptance of the foreign Syrian control as a lesser of evils.] 3) For a stalemate scenario to the civil war, additional outside parties must not intervene and a balance of forces must be maintained. This will require considerable cooperation from Iran, Syria, et al and concessions to them (which the Report emphasizes). Under today's conditions it will probably also require some tilting towards those Sunni elements that do not have al-Quada links, as they are the weaker party (and the Report also foreshadows such a tilt). 4) The consequence is potentially a very bloody indefinite civil war that the U.S. subtlety prevents either side from winning until the U.S. forces emerge as the only ones left standing. This is also very risky - so a brightly marked exit strategy is offered. It is said that if the Iraqi government does not meet the U.S. milestones (which they will not) the U.S. reserves the right, at a time of its choosing, to withdraw unilaterally (recommendations 40 41). All prejudice should fall to the Iraqis (and perhaps to those governments who did
Re: [PEN-L] What the Baker Report DOESN'T Say
[This is, in fact, similar to the scenario that was played out in the first 10 years of the Lebanese Civil War - a core of the Lebanese Army remained intact (and mostly in their barracks) from 1975 until February 1984. The army remained largely neutral and despite the dominance of Christian officers, Muslim and Druze troops stayed in the Lebanese national army until the same month as the final the withdrawal of the U.S. Marines. A further blow to the Army's neutrality came in 1987 when its Christian Commander (General Aoun, who is today aligned with Hezbollah and Syria) accepted the Presidency of the country contrary to the National Pact. But the relevant point that remains in most people's mind is that of an army and a facade of a national government that remain for a long time outside a civil war. And the ultimate acceptance of the foreign Syrian control as a lesser of evils.] Just a slight correction of the above...by the end of 1975 the army split and a young muslim major called ahmad alkhtib was able to drag most of the army to the side of the lebanese national patriotic movement led By kamal Junblatt and the communist allied to the PLO then. This tipped the balace of forces against the right wing. In august 1975 the then president Franjieh along with the arab league called on syria to enter and prempt the victory of the progresive forces Syria moved and did a cleaning job turning what was not a sectraian war yet into a full fledged sectarian war. lebanon then was strategic to israel's security so syria's entry had had a nod from israel. see i think matters are a little more complex than they are in the near east. this is long story but you cannot say that the army was neutral or intact. - Original Message From: Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Friday, December 8, 2006 5:59:33 AM Subject: What the Baker Report DOESN'T Say Is it just me? I keep hearing reported that the Baker Report calls for all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by 2008. That is NOT at all what it says. Nor is this the strategy that underlies the Report. The U.S. may be going in a very different direction. 1) In the Report's view all U.S. combat brigades (i.e. as self-contained units) would merely be administratively dissolved by 2008. But after 2008 about half the combat troops would remain - *indefinitely* - either reflagged as embedded in Iraqi combat brigades, or operating in free standing units focusing on combating al-Quada (see pp 71-72). About half the troops not directly in combat would also remain after 2008 - indefinitely - for training, equipping, advising, force protection, and search and rescue as well as intelligence and support. This is estimated to amount to 70,000 to 80,000 troops (as compared to 140,000 today). See New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/world/middleeast/06report_summary.html?_r=1oref=sloginTheir The Study Group opposed ANY timetable for the withdrawal of this half of the U.S. combat troops (p.67). 2) There appears to be a clear strategy behind this approach. The U.S. troops will hunker down and wait out the Iraqi civil war. Their justification for their inaction/ineffectiveness will be that they are embedded with those elements of the Iraqi national army that do not dissolve into the civil war - and these remaining Iraqi brigades troops firmly intend to remain mostly in their barracks during that war. At the same time, crack U.S. combat troops, operating independently, will continue to try to keep al-Quada in check (but without the need to take casualties by holding territory or restoring control). By implication it is anticipated that, at some point, the warring sides of the civil war will simply wear themselves down, and be resigned to an accommodation that reflects the balance of forces - also accepting, in their exhaustion and horror at the massacre, the Pax Americana. The smaller footprint with far fewer U.S. casualties should buy enough time in the U.S, for the extended wait. [This is, in fact, similar to the scenario that was played out in the first 10 years of the Lebanese Civil War - a core of the Lebanese Army remained intact (and mostly in their barracks) from 1975 until February 1984. The army remained largely neutral and despite the dominance of Christian officers, Muslim and Druze troops stayed in the Lebanese national army until the same month as the final the withdrawal of the U.S. Marines. A further blow to the Army's neutrality came in 1987 when its Christian Commander (General Aoun, who is today aligned with Hezbollah and Syria) accepted the Presidency of the country contrary to the National Pact. But the relevant point that remains in most people's mind is that of an army and a facade of a national government that remain for a long time outside a civil war. And the ultimate acceptance of the foreign Syrian control as a lesser of evils.] 3) For a stalemate scenario to the
Re: [PEN-L] Fwd: Kenneth Rogoff on Latam economies
I like the stance growth oriented and democratic.. as if the others are undemocratic. when asked about Saudi Arabia a fledgling market economy why is it undemocratic, the answer from these guys would be it is their culture... - Original Message Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index
Re: [PEN-L] More idiocy from Iran
This is just the tip of the iceberg in idiocy. Its sectarian pro-Shiite policies in Iraq facilitated the American invasion and paved the grounds for the present civil war. What Bob G said yesterday i.e. the US is not winning is another smoke screen similar to that of Iraqi WMD. When hundreds of Iraqis die every day in sectarian fighting, the US wins on account of increasing global instability in the oil region, which is essential for its capital accumulation. Destroying Iraq is a clear victory for the US. And now just look at the results of Hizbollah's demonstartions in lebanon and the associated spill over from the Iraqi sectarian war. Already two Shiites have died in beirut. where will the short sighted sectarian based iranian policy leads, to a sunnite shiite split across the muslim world. Persian mullahs in power are a doosy. - Original Message From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, December 5, 2006 11:35:33 PM Subject: More idiocy from Iran (The Iranian government wants to bring together people like Deborah Lipstadt representing the side that 6 million Jews got killed by Hitler and the other side. What a joke. You might as well organize a conference with both sides on whether Black people are genetically inferior, or whether the Earth is flat or round.) NY Times, December 5, 2006 Iran to Host Scholarly Seminar on Holocaust By NAZILA FATHI TEHRAN, Dec. 5 — Iran will hold a two-day conference on the Holocaust next week in which more than 60 scholars from some 30 countries will participate, the Foreign Ministry said today. The seminar is in response to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments last year, when he said the scale of the genocide of the Jews had been exaggerated, the deputy foreign minister, Manouchehr Mohammadi, told a news conference today. Mr. Ahmadinejad first stirred outrage in the West in December last year, when he called the Holocaust a myth. He has repeatedly said that the Holocaust has been used as a tool of propaganda, and banned scholars here from research on the subject. The president also sent a 3,000-word letter to Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel outlining his arguments. Mr. Mohammadi said next week’s conference will “provide the opportunity for scholars from both sides to give their papers in freedom and without pre-conceived ideas.” He refused to give the names of the 67 international scholars he said were attending the seminar, out of concern that their countries would prohibit them from coming. full: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/world/middleeast/06irancnd.html -- www.marxmail.org Any questions? Get answers on any topic at www.Answers.yahoo.com. Try it now.
Re: [PEN-L] question on imperialism from Loren Goldner
In my reading on imperialism few, not several decades ago, there were three main texts provided: Bukharin, Luxembourg and Lenin. The point of departure of Lenin from the rest was in fact that military aggression i.e. the fifth analytical facet of imperialism was central to how the practice of imperialism in modern history unfolded and this was central to accumulation by dislocation. Realisation per se as Luxembourg emphasized would still put her on the side of under-consumptionist where a Keynesian dentistry exercise of demand management can dodge crisis forever. For Lenin however, this was a secondary issue under imperialism. The crux of the matter was that militarism held primacy in the reproduction of capital. This is quite a departure from the rest. The very points on the expansive military presence of the US that has been on the rise is evidence for Lenin’s point; and if one were to take the division of labour within world capital, true that the US has become a liability to the rest and the outflows (net) from the developing to the developed world were last year at 200 million dollars, however, that is because the breaking down of capital flow barriers has allowed for stronger cross border relations with the bourgeoisie everywhere and so on. The context has changed since the days of ardent nationalism, and even then there backflows for the outflows. So I guess Lenin knew that in some respects he will be outdated but not in the central theme under monopoly capitalism, in which accumulation by forcible dispossession dominates. Wars are “primitive accumulation”, however now it has little developmental role. But good piece from loren as usual. Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index
Re: [PEN-L] question on imperialism from Loren Goldner
Just forgot to add lenin's definition of imperiliasm is more a theory of war. This is certainly better than cultural explanations of war. the worst racist comments that come out of imperilaist prolocutor is that these 'tribes hated each other for a long time.' Shakesperiam deus ex machina hate theories. god sent like. that is what john major came out of serbia saying after the serbo-croat conflict. i think the best thing to come marxism is that histroy repeats itself once as a tragedy etc. neither god nor man in his Fri#$*%^ nationalism can transcend history and it is the material conditions of life that shape consciousness and sahpe history not so much as i please now, mind you. Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] Arab national congress congratulates Chavez
It says in the ltter sent to Chavez.. Your victory is ours, it is a vcitory for fredom and social justice for the peoples to choose not under the threat of guns and canons. etc.. nice letter Have a burning question? Go to www.Answers.yahoo.com and get answers from real people who know.
[PEN-L] walls in near east: the new fad
Saudi Arabia is building a fence along its border with Iraq to hedge against the spill-over effect of terrorism, which will cost $12 billion; that is higher than Yemen’s GDP in 2005, which stood at $11.5 Billion. Walls in Saudi Arabia and Israel are the fad enclosure of primitive accumulation reawakened on a larger scale in the twenty first century. While Israel and Saudi Arabia build walls, infant malnutrition in Yemen stands at 36 percent and the culling of birds in Gaza because of the bird flu had resulted in severe malnutrition in children because they were deprived of eggs, or their most important source of protein intake. Few and fewer Arabs now have a say in how their lives are run. The Arab in the abstract is the ad hominem of imperialism, practiced in its ugliest forms in the Near East. however, erected walls and barriers between regional states are somewhat a proof by contradiction of the pulling forces of kinship and proximity. Sponsored Link $420k for $1,399/mo. Think You Pay Too Much For Your Mortgage? Find Out! www.LowerMyBills.com/lre
Re: [PEN-L] Preparing the retreat
if news of US defeat in iraq propagate you could start another great depression.. it ain't over until the fat lady things. there is as much withdrawal as there was weapons of mass destruction.. this is just a democratic smoke screen of crisis management and iran is next by necessity to US capital and not by choice. oddly the neocons are not an abbreation just an honest relection of the severity of the crisis in US capital - Original Message From: Marvin Gandall [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDUSent: Thursday, November 9, 2006 7:53:30 AMSubject: Preparing the retreat The "new direction" for Iraq being touted by the Democrats is code for astaged withdrawal similar to the one initiated by the new Nixonadministration in Vietnam between 1969-73. The bulk of US ground forcesceased offensive operations and departed Vietnam in the earlier part of thatperiod.Republicans as well as Democrats appear ready to act on the pending"recommendations" of the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton group which was set upearlier this year by the Bush administration to lay the political groundworkfor a retreat. Rumsfeld's resignation indicates that the administration hasaccepted the sweeping DP election victory as confirmation that there is nolonger any public support for continuing the occupation.Significantly, Rumsfeld's replacement, Robert Gates, is a member of theBaker group, and is closely tied to Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski,the earliest and most prominent critics of the neocon adventure in Iraq.Gates and Brzezinski have previously recommended that Iran and Syria beenlisted to help facilitate the US withdrawal. The US will require that itsretreat is orderly and that it is leaving behind an Iraqi government whichis seen to be broadly representative and nonaligned. The Iranians andSyrians will be counted upon to secure the respective cooperation of thewarring Shia and Sunni factions to this end.== Sponsored Link For just $24.99/mo., Vonage offers unlimited local and long- distance calling. Sign up now.
Re: [PEN-L] Seth Sandronsky Interviews Michael Perelman!
JMClark was son of the equally famous JBClark his doctoral thesis (Standards of Reasonableness in Local Rate Discriminations).concerned the regulation of railroad rates. Banks,like railroads. are characterised by high shares of fixed in total costs. In the absence of agreed methods of allocating these fixed costs amongst their different servicesbanks' pricingis widely accepted as having an arbitrary, ad hoc character, and banking is an industry with widespread cross-subsidisation. Clark's work helped a colleqgue once understand US charges during the Uruguay Round that Japanese banks - Nomura in particular - were dumping their services in the US market. - Original Message From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDUSent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 3:37:40 PMSubject: Re: Seth Sandronsky Interviews Michael Perelman! can you summarize J.M. Clark's main contributions?On 10/24/06, soula avramidis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: John Maurice Clark, the American institutionalist, addressed his pioneering work, Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs, to the problems discussed here. he had few followers among either conventional or non-conventional (including Marxian) economists.-- Jim Devine / " Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths...Imean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind onsomething like that?" – Barbara Bush(urban myth? no. See http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/barbara.asp)
[PEN-L] International day of action for the Iraqi resistance
The battle of the Iraqi people is the battle of all movements, peoples and nations fighting for their liberation from the imperialist world system led by the US . Therefore we have to firmly rally behind the Iraqi resistance. If we are able to support their struggle to smash the US attempt to build a puppet regime and to eventually drive out the invaders, it will result into a victory for mankind. It will not only give new momentum to the struggle of the Palestinian and Afghan people, but will lead to a new offensive of the liberation struggles all around the world. (International day of action for the Iraqi resistance).[1] [1] http://www.theiraqmonitor.org/article/view/29888.html
Re: [PEN-L] Seth Sandronsky Interviews Michael Perelman!
John Maurice Clark, the American institutionalist, addressed his pioneering work, Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs, to the problems discussed here.he had few followers among either conventional or non-conventional (including Marxian) economists. - Original Message From: Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDUSent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 9:54:52 AMSubject: Seth Sandronsky Interviews Michael Perelman! http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sandronsky231006.html--Yoshiehttp://montages.blogspot.com/http://mrzine.orghttp://monthlyreview.org/
[PEN-L] losses or gains of war in lebanon
Accounting: depreciation and destruction to the infrastructure: 3.2 b$ Economic: Foregone income and earnings from destroyed capital: 3.5b$ Political economy: Is the present social formation capable of reproducing itself in time and space within the confines of the same social relations (sectarianism and warlordism) now more than before? The answer is yes, because geopolitical rents may exceed the sum total of actual and foregone losses (6.7b$) as a result of different portly regional and international players, especially the Gulf and the USA’s, efforts to buy support amongst the different factions of the Lebanese mosaic. so from a qualatative point of view, the war supports fundemnetalism and sectarianism and it does not provide the space nor the grounds for new universal values to grow.
Re: [PEN-L] Jordan buy Iraqi oil for ten dollars a barrel
ther are two types of rents in the near east: oil rents and geopolitical rents. jordan is an aid showcase because as a buffer state it enjoys a lot of geopolitical rents - Original Message From: ken hanly [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDUSent: Wednesday, October 4, 2006 4:46:15 AMSubject: Jordan buy Iraqi oil for ten dollars a barrel I wonder why the oil is sold so cheap and if itincludes transportation costs!
Re: [PEN-L] Whoopi! Didn't you know? We Won the War in Iraq
US: Baghdad Bombings Hit New High http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061004/ts_nm/iraq_dc if new highs continue at the present rate, the daily death toll in Iraq will climb to 32,000 perday by the year 2025. now ain't that something to reckon with. if it ain't the will of Gad what is it then? - Original Message From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDUSent: Thursday, October 5, 2006 3:37:53 AMSubject: Whoopi! Didn't you know? We Won the War in Iraq Shanker, Thom. 2006. "In Bill.s Fine Print, Millions to Celebrate Victory." New YorkTimes (4 October)."Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was alump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation.s capital .forcommemoration of success. in Iraq and Afghanistan.Not surprisingly, the money wasnot spent."[So, then the celebration was premature.]"Now Congressional Republicans are saying, in effect, maybe next year.A paragraphwritten into spending legislation and approved by the Senate and House allows the $20million to be rolled over into 2007."[Do they really expect things to be better this year?]"The original legislation empowered the president to designate .a day of celebration.to commemorate the success of the armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to .issuea proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe that day withappropriate ceremonies and activities"..[Maybe more people will use the occasion to protest the war.]--Michael PerelmanEconomics DepartmentCalifornia State UniversityChico, CA 95929Tel. 530-898-5321E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edumichaelperelman.wordpress.com
Re: [PEN-L] deep critique of Hobsbawm
Every position is a class position. rash political positions emanating from deep hate as opposed to deep critique for imperialism and the sort make things happen. there is a world of difference between the organic intellectual surrounded by misery and driven by more hate than reason at times and the ivory tower intellectual. as to my hate versus reason thing, i should have said praxis vs. hypothetical analysis that which is divorced from reality and its gravely lopsided balance of forces in favour of the imperialist camp. the poor should have the right to hate-give'm that. Else they are stupid.
- Original Message From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDUSent: Tuesday, October 3, 2006 4:43:22 AMSubject: deep critique of Hobsbawm
Letter to the WSJEven Stalinist's Mother Admitted He Was CrazyOctober 2, 2006; Page A11In Abheek Bhattacharya's review of Paul Hollander's book "The End of Commitment"(Bookmarks, Weekend Journal, Sept. 15), he writes about British historian EricHobsbawm: "As late as 1994, Mr. Hobsbawm told an interviewer that, even if he hadknown in the mid-1930s that 'millions of people were dying in the Sovietexperiment,' he would have still supported it, for 'the chance of a new world beingborn in great suffering would still have been worth backing.'"My mother was a friend of Eric Hobsbawm's mother and I visited the Hobsbawms withher, where I listened to Eric's arguments. He supported the sabotage of the Britisharmy and the war against Germany because his messiah, Joseph Stalin had a pact withAdolf Hitler. I argued that the Nazis would not only kill him but also his motherand his sister Rita. He quoted Joseph Stalin
to me: "You cannot make an omeletwithout breaking eggs."I was horrified; only years later did I realize that he was a Jewish Adolf Eichmann.I repeated his views to his mother, and she was succinct. "Er ist meshugganah" ("Heis crazy").A few years later I was in the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry when in the spring 1945 weliberated Bergen Belsen concentration camp; there, I saw the real-life consequencesof the megalomaniac musings of so-called historians. It is a shame Eric evadedreality so that he did not have to acknowledge what his stupidity helped bring inblood and bones.--Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929Tel. 530-898-5321E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edumichaelperelman.wordpress.com
Re: [PEN-L] bye-bye Mao
It depends on the type of contradiction... is it contingent, relative, absolute etc., The US example of contradiction proves that you can fool the people all the time... Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.
[PEN-L] The thorny road to Tehran
Back on 26 April the following steps were envisaged for raid of Tehran "they really need to bomb but the costs are great for now: 1.they have emasculate Hezbollah 2. they to quarantine the Syrians 3.they have to have Iraqi Resistance contained by Iraqi forces 4. they have to discredit hamas 5.they have to get the sunni-shiite divide to a boiling pointafter all that and other specific logistics related to this they they will bomb. for now ignorant Iranian mullahs will play with the fate of humanity by putting narrow sectarian interest first and as result of that they are surrounded by the US on all sides. so the US will neutralize Iran by waiting.. the US still has time... the only effective resistance will be popular resistance to US imperialism."The idiocy of an American administration that reduces all of reality to Hodge pdge theory see what a little party can do, imagine if this was universal popular resistance. the US will not last for a second. Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com. Check it out.
[PEN-L] geopolitcal rents in the near east
there are two ways of making a livingin the near east, oil rents for oil endowed states and geopolitical rents for neighbouring states. Israel and the non oil producing Arab states have come in part to survive on the fact they could be involved in war or could be paid to stay out of war e.g Jordan and Egypt. Lebanon is one those whose war losses could be easily redressed with oil rents and already aid is pouring in. but irrespective of what transpires on the battle field, though Hezbollah is putting up a good fight, the real battle is already won because the Shiites were accused of collaboration with the US and the US needed to divide the Sunnis and the shias to win in Iraq and then Iran. now nasrullah has bridged that divide and that ideological victory will soon bring the defeat of the US in Iraq and all its cronies with it. this is taken to be a national liberation war in which the communist are minuscule but still support the islammist in the south against the Israelis. Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.
