Exactly.
What is worrying is that poor countries now have a structural deficit since they have become dependent on food imports after many of their farmers have lost their livelihoods and land.
Alot of food aid has become a crooked sham by rich countries and big corporations to furthur their...
The problem with China trade is that the Chinese are relatively impoverished and cannot afford to buy the stuff that US produces - apparently tiny Singapore alone has approximately the same purchasing power of the whole of China.
The commercial attraction in China today is not a big market...
If people went back in time, they would find out that European countries did not implement free trade until their economies were strong enough to compete on fairly equal terms. They erected trade barriers and didn't give a rats ass about intellectual property all in order to build up their...
If the history of the Philippines was only about 5 years old and totally concentrated in Makati city, you might be right. Problem is that Philippines have suffered an unequal relationship incl trade with the US since it was colonized. I'm sure the Philippines is an attractive place to invest in...
Almost all the examples you quoted do not implement free trade. South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia protect their markets at least in certain sectors. Mexico embraced free trade and got totally burnt and is now in the doghouse.
You are right, we don't need to discuss purely hypothetical...
Chinese had reason to be distrustful when they see western powers making a living by piracy and drugs. China is probably one of the few countries which didn't get colonized although it did knuckle down by importing opium under the aegis of free trade after the opium war and granting...
The Israel Palestine conflict is not a conflict of civilizations or religions, just as the US-Amerindian war.
The issue driving those conflicts is a very basic one - territorial dispossession. Palestinians want their own state and have made a big concession from the 1948 partition to be ready...
I told you already in my previous post that the 1948 borders for Israel did not contain WB/Gaza. There was suppose to be 2 states - Israel and Palestine and the WB/Gaza would constitute the Palestinian state.
If Israel can use the old testament to justify the creation of a state then the...
Palehorse,
Your contention that the West Bank/Gaza belongs to Israel is a common misconception. Did the 1948 borders demarcate the WB/Gaza as part of Israel? The WB/Gaza belongs to the Palestinians ever since 1948 despite being occupied by Israel or other Arab countries.
In the 1967 war...
Yes and for good reason. The neighbouring Arabs Egypt and Jordan did not really bother with a Palestinian state in 1948-1967 and just occupied parts of it. Then came the 1967 war and Israel conquered Sinai and the WB. In this crucial period the US missed the opportunity to pressure Israel to...
In your post, you have stated your position 2 times without stating your reasons why except to say it is absurd/what idiots believe.
Its quite well known (at least outside the US) that Israel is using its occupied territories as a colonial settlement. Resources like land for farming, water...
Why not 1948 borders? That would be ideal but Palestinians want to present a more politically feasible and practical solution which is to concede more land by asking for only the 1967 borders. Nearly every country in the world except for 2 (US/Israel) acknowlege this.
The 1967 borders is the...
I dont know how that article can be used to justify the lofty claims of NAFTA, it sounds more like a snivelling apology after all the lofty claims.
The article only allows a modest net plus for the economy occured not counting the 4 million jobs lost (due to China not NAFTA so they claim)...
The WSJ has always been conservative, after all who does it work with every day to get news?
During the cold war it cheered on US military interventions and called CIA + Suharto's 1965 bloody coup a shining light in Asia.
Remember that all this happen in spite of not because of Israeli occupation. And don't forget the international community under the UN has done alot to help the Palestinians with social services as well.
If the living standards were as high as Europe, do you think the military occupation of...
Looks like the WSJ is trying to safe face by painting Chalabi in a good light.
Its hard to imagine that this business crook on the run was the person that the neocons wanted to 'hand the keys' over to in Iraq.
Absolute nonsense.
The US has created more instability in the ME in recent decades by supporting wars, dictatorships, oil monarchies, opposing the UN vote for a Palestinian state and protesting Israels abuses every year nearly alone together with Israel against the rest of the world.
The...
Its been the other way around for decades. Israel has little to gain from giving Palestinians back their land. Israel can tolerate a few deaths and bombings now and then while it uses Palestine for cheap labour and as a market for its goods.
The whole world regularly votes evey year on...
Dari,
NAFTA sucks for US and sucks even worse for Mexico. Its not a coincidence that illegal immigrants from Latin America are pouring in because neoliberal economic policies are killing their countries economies. Theres no real debate in US about free-trade in govt or mainsteam media because...
Western countries are still dumping agricultural products. Some leaders are calling on the west to cease biofuel use in a mistaken belief that it is causing the price increase of corn.
The whole idea of corn ethanol makes me queasy. Industrial scale monocultures will only mostly benefit the...
http://www.informationclearing...e.info/article7508.htm
You keep harping on and on despite being hammered on every point you have made.
Theres nothing self-righteous about opposing torture especially when there is no ticking time bomb scenario and when the people involved are innocent not...
You're just joking I assume, so my comment below isn't directed at you.
The US has gotten in alot of trouble all over the world by trying to 'give' democracy. In Japan's case, the US has undermined democracy by covertly supporting that one said party for several decades. Military dictators in...
Won't change the nature of Chinese culture or the Chinese themselves?
While I agree there is such a thing as culture, the Chinese (or any other group) can also do just about anything with equal propensity. As I have said earlier history is by definition something of a contigency. China...
You have to be more charitable when reading history or cultures because history is by definition contingent and happenstance. Taiwan and Korea had military dictatorships for decades after WW2 not because they had a history of strong rulers. Also take into account that much of history in China...
There is at least one small and a not so small (Vietnam) country who have developed their own oil industry and now compete globally. The premiers have smugly intimated to some ME oil producers by telling them about how their nationalized industries gives better returns than foreign contractors.
Its a good question. Some countries with famines/hunger like India actually have a grain surplus. Because western countries can pay more to turn it into pet food, thats where it goes.
The real problem is not food rotting in ports, its free trade and misguided humanitarian assistance. The US...
helloKeith,
You'd better be more careful about using WW2 Germany as your stalking horse. It was the conservatives in US (who even had lobby group America First Movement) and UK (except for Churchill) who were at the forefront of appeasement politics and allowed Hitler to blitzkreig through...
Those incidents may be spread out over a long period but poverty, poor economic prospects, police state abuses are constant reminders of how western powers have screwed up the ME since the Ottomans.
The US gave billions to its proxy Pakistan to build up the Taliban in the 80s despite the...
Its important to know what the French Muslims were rioting against. They were rioting against the state as an institution and not against non-Muslims 'infidels'. Granted there were probably some bad apples but the main impetus for the riots were against issues like employment racism where having...
If PSA can be tweaked to ensure fairness why are Saudi, Iran.. getting away from such contracts?
Service contracts,PSA and what not are tolerated by host countries because they don't have the proper expertise. The fairest system is one where indigenous countries develop their own oil industry...
Its true that one lone regime change fiasco 50+yrs ago might not seem to have much to do with the 19 hijackers. The short answer is that the US has supported and fostered a political climate of repressive dictatorships, military juntas and oil monarchies in the middle east (and all over the...
Good links.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/se...05/crudedesigns.htm#A1
The article says the drawbacks which can outweight the benefits :-
1. the investor?s profits are effectively guaranteed, by denying the state a fair share of revenue until the specified profit has been achieved;
2. while...
You're right, it was only a draft. But it cannot be denied that US/European oil companies were meddling around and have fixed laws at the expense of the Iraqi's. While PSA's may not be legalized robbery depending upon the language used in the contract, PSA's are not common and especially not...
Logistical necessity for what? As a forward operating base against Iran? As another base in America's ever expanding empire of bases? Just before 9/11 the US had about 250k military personel (+250k dependents) all spread out in overseas bases. Truly a model for expanding for the sake of...
How did a dictator take over in the first place.
Mugabe simply took advantage of widespread black dissatisfaction over white hegemony in politics and economy due to sham democracy and failed land reform after independence.
One could stand back and say democracy was to blame since it...
But the conservative neoliberal lobby has got alot of what they wanted.
Think about it - Iraq signed away much of their oil wealth to big oil cos through the exploitative Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) contracts, the US sponsored new constitution is rigged to make sure neoliberal economic...
Of course the white citizens deserve and have rights and Mugabe should be criticized.
But one would have to remember how those same white citizens came by their farmlands in Zimbabwe aka Rhodesia.
White colonial settlers drove out the blacks from their lands by killing and expropriation...
The Chinese govt is heavy handed and tends to use club-like policies. They are very concerned about face and how westerners will perceive the China and and they come down hard on unlicenced pets and stray dogs.
Out of curiosity, what do you think about the Chinese ppl and human rights...
While Mugabe is certainly to blame for much of Zimbabwe's problems, we mustn't overlook the fact that a small number of white colonials invaded and evicted the black population from their farmlands and pushed them into demarcated 'tribal areas'. Vast hacienda's were carved up and parceled out...
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