(Photo courtesy of Hope WorldWide )
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT?
(Foreign Policy In Focus)
In the view of Jason Hickel, though the Occupy movement is “global” in the sense that it is active in many areas and countries outside Wall Street, USA, it is notably “provincial” in that it has yet to make any significant connection with social movements in the “global South,” the countries in South America and Africa. As demonstrators in North America and Europe seek a better distribution of privileges in their countries, they largely ignore the reality that the wealth of their nations which they hope to re-distribute is based on the colonialist extraction of the wealth of those in the global South.
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CHRISTMAS IN COSTA RICA WILL COME A LITTLE MORE EXPENSIVELY THIS YEAR.
(Tico Times)
This is the result of a controversial decision by the country’s Finance Minister to re-interpret the law governing customs duties on imported goods. The long-time practice was to exempt small and infrequent purchases from overseas from taxation, prompting a U.S. courier company, with a post office box in Florida, to ship goods without customs duties to Costa Rica, many of the customers no doubt being U.S. expatriates in the popular retirement destination. That yearly box of homemade cookies from Aunt Susie in Brooklyn will come at a steeper price this year.
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SOME VIRGINIA FARMERS COULD BECOME RICH OVERNIGHT IF STATE LIFTS BAN ON URANIUM MINING: MAKE THAT OVERNIGHT IN 5-8 YEARS.
(New York Times)
National Academy of Science report warns the state that “from scratch” rules for safety in mining will have to be instituted by the state, a process that cannot be completed for many years, if the ban on uranium ore mining is to be lifted.
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DO YOU WANT KETCHUP ON YOUR HUMMUS-BURGER, SIR?
(USA Today)
Questions like this are increasingly heard in U.S. airports as food vendors adapt both to the rise of consumer interest in “healthy eating options” and the reality that most airlines do not serve anything more than a less-than-nutritious “snack” onboard as they go into services-austerity modes.
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IN FLORIDA, WHO’S NAUGHTY AND NICE FOR STUDENTS IN PASSING OF STATE’S STANDARDIZED TESTS, THE FCAT’S?
(Daytona Beach News-Journal)
State’s Department of Education prepares to deliver a lump of coal in the stockings of many state high school students. It announces, effective with the new year, tougher passing standards, threatening to reduce pass rates from 59% to 50% of 10-graders taking the tests, without any reduction in actual performances. Teachers and administrators complain that they need more time to re-tool their academic efforts toward this standard, but the state office says the time is now, so get used to it, and prepare to have teacher evaluations based on student performances on the tests.
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Quote of the day…
In opposition you were a passionate critic of library closures. Please act Mr. Vaizey, and show library users across the country that you remain a passionate advocate for our public library service, and have not left your convictions at the door on entering office.
From letter by 200 signatories to UK culture minister Ed Vaizy as austerity measures to close public libraries are being considered.
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OWS is a republican trojan horse…..it is dead…
once OWS protested Obama, we knew they were a republican trojan horse….and thus officially dead to us…dead….deader than dead….!!!!!!!
While I support OWS, I believe we will be left with a shell of a country, with the corporations having raped and pillaged the land(scape) of all usable resources, then moving on, much like locusts. They will have their funds secured in either another currency or in precious metals and/or gems, leaving behind shattered communities and broken dreams. Meanwhile, some of their stooges in congress will be left behind, looking stupid and holding the bag. Of course, this is looking at the positive side; the negative side might include economic slavery to pay off the US debts to other countries and labor ownership by the corporations…
This complaint seems like unnecessary nitpicking. Most OWS supporters would agree that injustice around the world needs to be recognized and rectified. But we are merely trying to affect change in there avenues that we control, here at home. The global dynamic will likewise shift if protests can achieve a true change in political culture here in the United States.
What should scare every American the most about OWS is the stark contrast in the reaction the establishment had with it versus the Tea Party. Both were born of anger. The Tea Party began as a disorganized group of angry ordinary folks. Many say the initial anger was over the fact that the GOP preached tax cuts spending cuts smaller government for decades and then when they got hold of the federal checkbook they wrote checks faster than the ink could dry on them. I was very angry about that myself.
What happened? Very quickly people with lots of money jumped on the Tea Party and turned it into an anti-Obama faction. It became very organized and very well funded and heralded by the media. Rather than steer the GOP back towards conservatism it became the global ultra-wealthy tax cut guard dog that it is today – unbending on the rich mans tax cuts but ready to negotiate anything else. It was hijacked.
OWS received media attention. Nobody with money or connections ever got behind it – or ever tried. The establishment tried to turn it too into an anti-Obama protest but that didn’t fly. So it was destroyed. Heads were bashed. Arrests were made. Enough. You don’t serve our purpose. Go home (if you have one).
That scares me. This could have been – should have been – the start of something big. But nobody with the money and power to turn it into something even tried.
What does that say about America now? It says that the people are getting very angry. You can still protest all you want but nobody is listening. Good luck trying to change the status quo. It serves the ultra-wealthy all too well.
Our government has been bought off by a pool of global investors – global corporations. They’re not necessarily Americans and they clearly do not care about America except for what profits they can squeeze out of it. They don’t care if you can afford to send your kids to college or even feed them. They don’t care about your health care or retirement. All they care about is more profits. Today. And how America can generate those profits. They’ve had no problem finding enough self-serving egomaniacs to be their puppets. They’ve chosen Romney as their official Bush replacement and they’ve waited too long to get Obama out of the way.
If you look at all the human empires – from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union – and now America – they all fell – and when it happened it was sudden and surprised most of the citizens. Americas fall will be sudden and disastrous (we are an armed society) but it shouldn’t take anyone by surprise.