The Symphony Way -- Apartheid never left

“Everyday there is people that come from everywhere and ask many questions, then we tell them its not lekker to stay on the road and in the blikkies.” But this book isn’t an exercise in prurience. It’s a means to dignity, a way for the poors to reflect, be reflected and share with you. This book is testimony to the fact that there’s thinking in the shacks, that there are complex human lives, and complex humans who reflect, theorise and fight to bring change. This book is a sign of that fight, and in reading it, you have been conscripted. Mon semblable, mon frère[3] – you are addressed, reader, not as a voyeur, but as a brother or sister, as someone whose eyes dignify the struggle.

Capitalism's Dismal Future

Spencer Platt, Getty Images

A homeless man named Roger panhandles in New York City.

By Paul Mattick

Apart from the patently nonreality-based dissent of its Republican members, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission could hardly have expected the report it issued in January to arouse much excitement. After a year and a half of research and the testimony of academics and other economic experts, it came up with no more than the already conventional wisdom that the economic downturn that burst into public view in 2007 might have been avoided, having been caused by a combination of lax governmental regulation and excessive risk-taking by lenders and borrowers, particularly in the housing market. The same conventional wisdom assures us that swift government action prevented the Great Recession from turning into a full-blown depression, and that the downturn has given way to recovery, albeit a "fragile" one. No matter how often it is repeated, however, this wisdom remains unconvincing.

Why is the recovery so fragile? Why is unemployment stubbornly high? Why are the banks, newly stocked with cash by that swift government action, so uninterested in advancing it for business expansion? Why is the series of sovereign debt crises in Europe echoed in the United States by collapsing state budgets? Why do politicians call relentlessly for austerity even while the economy remains unable to satisfy the need of millions for housing, health care, education, and even food? The bankruptcy of the putative science of economics already demonstrated by the failure of experts to predict the catastrophe is underlined by their apparent inability either to explain what is happening at present or to reach consensus on measures to be taken in response.

Deficits: Real Issue, Phony Debates

Deficits have now risen, yet again, to headline status. Conservatives inside and to the right of the Republican Party frame the national debates by attacking deficits. They want to reduce them by cutting government spending. Liberals respond, as usual, by insisting that overcoming the crisis requires big government spending (“stimulus”) and hence big deficits. Most Americans watch the politicians' conflicts with mixtures of confusion, disinterest, and disdain. Yet deficits pose a real issue for everyone, one that the debates among politicians and their economist advisors miss, ignore, or hide.

When the federal government raises less in taxes and other revenues than it spends, it must borrow the difference. Such annual borrowing is each year's deficit. The U.S. Treasury borrows that money by selling bonds, federal IOUs, to the lenders. The accumulation of annual deficits comprises the national debt, the total of outstanding U.S. treasury bonds. So the first and simplest questions about deficits are (1) why does the federal government choose to borrow rather than to raise taxes? and (2) why does it borrow rather than cut its expenditures? The twin answers are profoundly political. Elected officials are afraid to raise taxes on business and the rich because their profits and great personal wealth can then finance the defeat of officials who do that. Cutting government spending that benefits business and the rich is avoided for the same reason. As the tax burden shifted increasingly onto middle- and lower-income people in recent decades, elected officials have faced rising tax revolts coupled with demands for more government services and supports.

US Life Expectancy Falls to 49th: hows are food?

A new study says life expectancy in the United States has plunged over the last decade. According to Health Affairs, the US now ranks forty-ninth in the world in life expectancy, down from twenty-fourth place in 1999. The study authors cited what they called the United States’ "uniquely inefficient" healthcare system as the primary cause.

The Narcissism of the Neurotic : The End of the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games over, we can now return to those of everyday Indian life. For all the protests, though, there was nothing in the corruption that marked the Games that does not permeate every town and city, all the time. Just that, in these Games, it got concentrated in one very high-profile event, under constant public and media gaze. Much of the agonizing over what was routine corruption  was occasioned by “what the world will think of us.” For ‘world' read Western world. We care little about what Tuvalu or Tonga or Papua New Guinea think of us.

The corruption — or its public manifestation — hurt us because it messed with our self-image and our need to be accepted as special by the Western elite, in every way, even at sports. After all, we are knocking at the door of the G-8. Else, there were no surprises in the corruption. Shocking, yes. Surprising, no. Dirty contracts handed out to sleazy builders? That's business as usual in Mumbai, any day in the past three decades. Most of the city's 36 MLAs are builders or contractors, which is its own comment.

The Koch Empire and Americans for Prosperity: More Tentacles Surface at Rightwing Front Group

Lily Tomlin said it best: “No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.” Despite two solid years of progressive media tracking the billionaire Koch brothers’ funding of right wing front groups, new details have emerged which show a more sophisticated and ominous network than previously understood.

One of the key organizations funded by a Koch-controlled foundation is Americans for Prosperity (AFP).  While it has been widely documented and publicized that the group is orchestrating the Tea Party, AFP is also a veritable smorgasbord of other “grassroots” personalities.  The AFP or the AFP Foundation have  spawned the following identities: 

DefendingtheDream.org (August 27-28 D.C. summit for right wing strategizing and rally);

SayNoCapandTrade.org (kill tax on production of greenhouse gases);

NoInternetTakeover.com (attacks on the Federal Communications Commission);

SickofSpending.com (“…how to recruit, educate, organize, and mobilize fed up Americans to stop the radical left-wing agenda…”);

RegulationReality.com (“…educate citizens about the EPA’s attempt to implement radical global warming regulations…”);

NovemberIsComing.com (phone bank; go door to door to beat back those liberals);

TaxCutsForAll.com (don’t raise taxes on the rich);

SpendingCrisis.org (shrink the Federal government);

CaliforniaSoS.com (cut spending in California);

United4NoOn4.com (kill Amendment 4 in Florida that would give voters more say in local legislative decisions; an ironic position for people who say they want to promote more liberty).

Is it Micro Usury? Ethics runs smack into profit in the debate on the small loan business

Micro Gain, Macro Pain
Microfinance institutions make big claims, but critics point at the holes.

Financial inclusion		Opaque benefits
By March-end 2009, over 22 million people were beneficiaries Rs 25,000-30,000 crore deployed in the system Large funds flowing to sector from banks and equity investors Reach out in areas where banks have been tardy in providing service Rapid scaling up through innovation/ technology to cover remote areas Loan repayment remains over 95%		A significant percentage of clients exist only on loan books Poor may be benefiting but high MFI profitability raises questions Steep interest rates, sometimes over 40%, defeat purpose of helping poor Tight schedule of weekly repayments putting tremendous pressure Proxy agents flourishing due to lack of checks and balances No data available on indebtedness

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India’s microfinance institutions (MFIS) have often hit the headlines. But this time, they are doing so not necessarily for the right reasons. They have been accused of making huge profits and ensuring their own topline growth at the cost of the poor whom they aim to help with easy and affordable credit. SKS Microfinance, one of the biggest MFIS, hit the high streets with a very successful IPO and listing in August. But this raised questions about the firm’s operations and profit motives. What particularly drew strong criticism was SKS chairman Vikram Akula and other top management making millions through stake sale and ensuring high returns to equity investors. This criticism came from none other than the father of modern microfinance, Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, with whom Akula first worked at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Questions are also being raised about the coercive tactics used in many cases to ensure weekly repayments and the steep interest charged by the MFIS, sometimes over 40 per cent. In what way are these charges justified?
Though the avowed intention of MFIS and banks providing microcredit is to help small borrowers, there is increasing evidence to show its cumbersome processes are forcing landless farmers and traders to seek out the traditional moneylender. On the flip side, loan beneficiaries often face undue pressures. Last month,  over 1,000 women members of 50 self-help groups in Bhubaneswar protested against the high interest charged by MFIS. The first farmer suicide in drought-hit West Bengal this year is also traced to the harassment over loan repayment.

Microcredit, Macro Issues

Walden Bello | October 14, 2006

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus, regarded as the father of microcredit [1], comes at a time when microcredit has become something like a religion to many of the powerful, rich and famous. Hillary Clinton regularly speaks about going to Bangladesh, Yunus's homeland, and being "inspired by the power of these loans to enable even the poorest of women to start businesses, lifting their families--and their communities--out of poverty."

Like the liberal Clinton, the neocon Paul Wolfowitz, now president of the World Bank, has also gotten religion, after a recent trip to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. With the fervor of the convert, he talks about the "transforming power" of microfinance: "I thought maybe this was just one successful project in one village, but then I went to the next village and it was the same story. That evening, I met with more than a hundred women leaders from self-help groups, and I realized this program was opening opportunities for poor women and their families in an entire state of 75 million people."

Rape and Minerals in the Congo

The United Nations is warning Democratic Republic of Congo troops are committing rape and murder in the same areas where rebel forces carried out mass rapes just weeks ago. On Thursday, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, told the Security Council that DRC troops had carried out abuses in the Walikale region. Between 300 to 500 women, girls and babies were raped when Rwandan and Congolese rebels stormed villages there in July and August. Wallström said Walikale residents are being terrorized because their region has valuable minerals.

Margot Wallström: "The mass rapes in Walikale demonstrate a nexus between the illicit exploitation of natural resources by armed elements and patrons of sexual violence. It is evident that communities in lucrative mining areas are at particularly high risk. The mineral wealth that should be the source of their prosperity is instead the source of their greatest suffering. I encourage more concerted attention on this aspect. Therefore, mass rapes that occurred in Walikale should also be investigated from the angle of the competition over mining interests as one of the root causes of conflict and sexual violence."

Cuba's changes: what would Che say?

It is hard to imagine what Che Guevara, the legendary communist revolutionary, would make of Cuba's plan to lay off 500,000 state workers by 2011 as the island moves closer to a market economy.Since his death in 1967 at the hands of US-backed forces in Bolivia, Guevara's iconic image has been used to sell everything from soda pop to cheap Chinese made t-shirts. Even symbols of socialism have great commercial value, suggesting the philosophies that motivated Guevara resonate on some level with a wide variety of people. Given this "revolutionary" legacy, market reforms might not spell the end for Cuban socialism, which has outlasted ten US presidents since the 1959 revolution. "Che would have understood that Cuba exists in the real world," Isaac Saney, a Marxist scholar and author of Cuba: A Revolution in Motion, told Al Jazeera. "You have to be able to live within your means and the state sector itself can no longer carry people who are not involved in productive activities."  Presently, Cuba's socialist government employs about 90 per cent of the labour force, according to John Kirk, a professor at Dalhousie University in Canada, who has worked as a translator for Aleida Guevara, Che's daughter. "You'll often have two or three bus drivers sharing the work of driving one bus … the bottom line is that the Cuban economy is not efficient," Kirk told Al Jazeera.

4 Accused of Coercing 400 Thai Workers into Forced Lab: Abuse of Farmers

4 Accused of Coercing 400 Thai Workers into Forced Labor

A Hawaii grand jury has indicted four people on charges of forcing around 400 Thai nationals to work as farm laborers after luring them to the United States. Prosecutors say the defendants are employees of the Los Angeles-based labor contractor Global Horizons Manpower. The workers were allegedly promised lucrative jobs, only to have their passports seized and forced to pay thousands of dollars in so-called "recruitment" fees that were financed by their property and homes.

BP Ties Compensation Fund to Gulf Coast Drilling Revenues

BP Ties Compensation Fund to Gulf Coast Drilling Revenues

The Huffington Post is reporting the oil giant BP appears to have structured its $20 billion compensation fund so that it will only be solvent if the company continues profiting from oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The US government’s agreement establishing the fund isn’t with BP or even BP America, but with a subsidiary called BP Exploration & Production, or BPEC, which operates BP’s Gulf oil leases. Vested with BPEC, the compensation fund could presumably fold in the event BPEC stops generating revenue from its Gulf operations. The structuring also could increase BP’s leverage in ensuring a continued Gulf presence, should it come under challenge. In a statement, the watchdog group Public Citizen called the arrangement "wildly inappropriate," adding, "It will give the government a financial incentive to become an even bigger booster of offshore oil drilling in the Gulf—the fatal flaw of the Minerals Management Service at the time of the BP disaster."

The Nation: We Have Yet to See The Biggest Costs of the BP Spill

Raj Patel
We’re almost at the happily-ever-after stage of the Gulf oil spill story. The well has been killed, the beaches are being scrubbed and wicked Tony Hayward has been banished to Russia. All that’s left now is for BP to make good on the damage it has caused. The company has set aside $32 billion to meet its liabilities, while doing everything in its power to keep the damages below that figure. But even if it has to pay the full price, it will have won one of the biggest bargains in corporate history. BP’s true debt is far higher than any of the figures that have been floated to date. The biggest costs to the Gulf have yet to be seen.

It was clear early on that BP was as committed to engineering the public perception of the spill as it was to cleaning it up. Soon after launching its clean-up operation, BP banned photographers from taking aerial shots of the slick, citing “safety precautions.” Similar methods continue to be used to prevent media access to key sites, and in its own press releases, BP has doctored photos to make its clean-up efforts appear more strenuous.

Gulf Coast Workers to Have Cleanup Pay Deducted from Claims

Earlier today, BP said the oil spill cleanup has cost nearly $4 billion so far, including $207 million to settle damage claims. Gulf Coast residents meanwhile are voicing outrage over news the government-administered claim fund will subtract any money they earn by working for the cleanup effort from any future claims. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg says the ruling will apply to anyone who participates in the Vessels of Opportunity program, which has employed hundreds of Gulf Coast residents left out of work because of the spill. A group of fishermen walked out of a public meeting on Friday after Feinberg announced the decision.

Michael Moore on His Life, His Films and His Activism

G20

Tribute to Monsanto

South Africa Slave Trade (and how the world cup is good for business)

"Despite more than a dozen international conventions banning slavery in the past 150 years, there are more slaves today than at any point in human history. Slaves are those forced to perform services for no pay beyond subsistence and for the profit of others who hold them through fraud and violence."

Obama has pledged to make the fight to abolish modern-day slavery a top foreign policy priority, but the U.S. currently spends more in a single day fighting drug trafficking than it does in an entire year fighting human trafficking

For a South African victim of human trafficking, this was the endgame. On a freezing night last July, Sindiswa, 17, lay curled in a fetal position in bed No. 7 of a state-run hospice in central Bloemfontein. Well-used fly strips hung between fluorescent lights, pale blue paint flaked off the walls, and fresh blood stained her sheets, the rusty bedpost and the linoleum floor. Sindiswa had full-blown AIDS and tuberculosis, and she was three months pregnant. Sweat poured from her forehead as she whispered her story through parched lips covered with sores. A few blocks away, the roars of rugby fans erupted from Free State Stadium. In June the roars will be from fans of the World Cup.

Intro to Human Trafficking

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

Human trafficking is the modern day practice of slavery. Also known as trafficking in persons, human trafficking comprises the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, based on the recruitment, harboring, and transportation of people solely for the purpose of exploitation. Every year traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits at the expense of victimizing millions of people around the world.

When Profit is your Motive you get Cheaper wells

WSJ Analysis Shows Oil Giant Used 'Risky' Design More Often Than Most Peers

In recent years, oil giant BP PLC used a well design that has been called "risky" by Congressional investigators in more than one out of three of its deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico, significantly more often than most peers, a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal data shows.