KnowMore.org Firefox Extension

If you have not heard of www.knowmore.org then you need to check it out. It is a website that profiles hundreds of corporations and rates them on a variety of issues including workers rights, environmental practices, ethical business practices, political power, etc.

If you use Mozilla Firefox, then definitely install the KnowMore add-on. For more info about the add-on, go here.

Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the IMF

taken from http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/TopTenIMF.html

What is the IMF?

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created in 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and are now based in Washington, DC. The IMF was originally designed to promote international economic cooperation and provide its member countries with short term loans so they could trade with other countries (achieve balance of payments). Since the debt crisis of the 1980's, the IMF has assumed the role of bailing out countries during financial crises (caused in large part by currency speculation in the global casino economy) with emergency loan packages tied to certain conditions, often referred to as structural adjustment policies (SAPs). The IMF now acts like a global loan shark, exerting enormous leverage over the economies of more than 60 countries. These countries have to follow the IMF's policies to get loans, international assistance, and even debt relief. Thus, the IMF decides how much debtor countries can spend on education, health care, and environmental protection. The IMF is one of the most powerful institutions on Earth -- yet few know how it works.

1.

The IMF has created an immoral system of modern day colonialism that SAPs the poor

The IMF -- along with the WTO and the World Bank -- has put the global economy on a path of greater inequality and environmental destruction. The IMF's and World Bank's structural adjustment policies (SAPs) ensure debt repayment by requiring countries to cut spending on education and health; eliminate basic food and transportation subsidies; devalue national currencies to make exports cheaper; privatize national assets; and freeze wages. Such belt-tightening measures increase poverty, reduce countries' ability to develop strong domestic economies and allow multinational corporations to exploit workers and the environment A recent IMF loan package for Argentina, for example, is tied to cuts in doctors' and teachers' salaries and decreases in social security payments.. The IMF has made elites from the Global South more accountable to First World elites than their own people, thus undermining the democratic process.

2.

The IMF serves wealthy countries and Wall Street

Unlike a democratic system in which each member country would have an equal vote, rich countries dominate decision-making in the IMF because voting power is determined by the amount of money that each country pays into the IMF's quota system. It's a system of one dollar, one vote. The U.S. is the largest shareholder with a quota of 18 percent. Germany, Japan, France, Great Britain, and the US combined control about 38 percent. The disproportionate amount of power held by wealthy countries means that the interests of bankers, investors and corporations from industrialized countries are put above the needs of the world's poor majority.

3.

The IMF is imposing a fundamentally flawed development model

Unlike the path historically followed by the industrialized countries, the IMF forces countries from the Global South to prioritize export production over the development of diversified domestic economies. Nearly 80 percent of all malnourished children in the developing world live in countries where farmers have been forced to shift from food production for local consumption to the production of export crops destined for wealthy countries. The IMF also requires countries to eliminate assistance to domestic industries while providing benefits for multinational corporations -- such as forcibly lowering labor costs. Small businesses and farmers can't compete. Sweatshop workers in free trade zones set up by the IMF and World Bank earn starvation wages, live in deplorable conditions, and are unable to provide for their families. The cycle of poverty is perpetuated, not eliminated, as governments' debt to the IMF grows.

4.

The IMF is a secretive institution with no accountability

The IMF is funded with taxpayer money, yet it operates behind a veil of secrecy. Members of affected communities do not participate in designing loan packages. The IMF works with a select group of central bankers and finance ministers to make polices without input from other government agencies such as health, education and environment departments. The institution has resisted calls for public scrutiny and independent evaluation.

5.

IMF policies promote corporate welfare

To increase exports, countries are encouraged to give tax breaks and subsidies to export industries. Public assets such as forestland and government utilities (phone, water and electricity companies) are sold off to foreign investors at rock bottom prices. In Guyana, an Asian owned timber company called Barama received a logging concession that was 1.5 times the total amount of land all the indigenous communities were granted. Barama also received a five-year tax holiday. The IMF forced Haiti to open its market to imported, highly subsidized US rice at the same time it prohibited Haiti from subsidizing its own farmers. A US corporation called Early Rice now sells nearly 50 percent of the rice consumed in Haiti.

6.

The IMF hurts workers

The IMF and World Bank frequently advise countries to attract foreign investors by weakening their labor laws -- eliminating collective bargaining laws and suppressing wages, for example. The IMF's mantra of "labor flexibility" permits corporations to fire at whim and move where wages are cheapest. According to the 1995 UN Trade and Development Report, employers are using this extra "flexibility" in labor laws to shed workers rather than create jobs. In Haiti, the government was told to eliminate a statute in their labor code that mandated increases in the minimum wage when inflation exceeded 10 percent. By the end of 1997, Haiti's minimum wage was only $2.40 a day. Workers in the U.S. are also hurt by IMF policies because they have to compete with cheap, exploited labor. The IMF's mismanagement of the Asian financial crisis plunged South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries into deep depression that created 200 million "newly poor." The IMF advised countries to "export their way out of the crisis." Consequently, more than US 12,000 steelworkers were laid off when Asian steel was dumped in the US.
7.

The IMF's policies hurt women the most

SAPs make it much more difficult for women to meet their families' basic needs. When education costs rise due to IMF-imposed fees for the use of public services (so-called "user fees") girls are the first to be withdrawn from schools. User fees at public clinics and hospitals make healthcare unaffordable to those who need it most. The shift to export agriculture also makes it harder for women to feed their families. Women have become more exploited as government workplace regulations are rolled back and sweatshops abuses increase.

8.

IMF Policies hurt the environment

IMF loans and bailout packages are paving the way for natural resource exploitation on a staggering scale. The IMF does not consider the environmental impacts of lending policies, and environmental ministries and groups are not included in policy making. The focus on export growth to earn hard currency to pay back loans has led to an unsustainable liquidation of natural resources. For example, the Ivory Coast's increased reliance on cocoa exports has led to a loss of two-thirds of the country's forests.

9.

The IMF bails out rich bankers, creating a moral hazard and greater instability in the global economy

The IMF routinely pushes countries to deregulate financial systems. The removal of regulations that might limit speculation has greatly increased capital investment in developing country financial markets. More than $1.5 trillion crosses borders every day. Most of this capital is invested short-term, putting countries at the whim of financial speculators. The Mexican 1995 peso crisis was partly a result of these IMF policies. When the bubble popped, the IMF and US government stepped in to prop up interest and exchange rates, using taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street bankers. Such bailouts encourage investors to continue making risky, speculative bets, thereby increasing the instability of national economies. During the bailout of Asian countries, the IMF required governments to assume the bad debts of private banks, thus making the public pay the costs and draining yet more resources away from social programs.

10.

IMF bailouts deepen, rather then solve, economic crisis

During financial crises -- such as with Mexico in 1995 and South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, and Russia in 1997 -- the IMF stepped in as the lender of last resort. Yet the IMF bailouts in the Asian financial crisis did not stop the financial panic -- rather, the crisis deepened and spread to more countries. The policies imposed as conditions of these loans were bad medicine, causing layoffs in the short run and undermining development in the long run. In South Korea, the IMF sparked a recession by raising interest rates, which led to more bankruptcies and unemployment. Under the IMF imposed economic reforms after the peso bailout in 1995, the number of Mexicans living in extreme poverty increased more than 50 percent and the national average minimum wage fell 20 percent.

Life and Debt

http://www.lifeanddebt.org/

Seriously, check out this amazing documentary about the ills of free trade, international lending, and what is essentially economic slavery that is going on all around the world right now. This documentary focuses on Jamaica.

Trailer:


And here is a pretty good article in the New York Times about the documentary.

Illegal Immigrants In NC Community Colleges

Check out the article here.

Personally, I think it is a great idea to allow illegal immigrants into our community colleges. Opposition to the NC Community College system’s decision to allow illegal immigrants to register for classes seems to be limited to the argument that these immigrants will rise up and take jobs, money, and power away from American citizens if they are allowed to attend community colleges.

The fact is that these “illegal” immigrants face prejudice on a massive scale. If a white American male citizen is accepted into a community college, it is expected. He will be offered a job out of college and able to afford basic necessities. If an undocumented immigrant is allowed to go to community college, it could potentially save his entire extended family from severe poverty, as it is likely that he will be the only one in the family to have a college education.

What is more important – that American citizens get all the American jobs, even if some immigrants are better for the job? Or that America as a whole is accepting of immigrants and helps to alleviate widespread poverty faced by already discriminated against immigrants? It is clear that the answer is to allow any qualified person a shot at making a living. After all, this is “the land of opportunity”.

Furthermore, many, if not all, of these immigrants seeking a college education were brought over with their parents when they were very young. Is it right to punish them for what their parents have done? They will need to save up the money to pay the out-of-state tuition, which will actually help the community colleges to make a profit.

Free Rice Update

http://www.freerice.com/index.php has updated their site so that when you answer one question, they now donate 20 grains of rice instead of 10. That is double the amount of rice donated per question, so click the link and get to donating.

A Sad Fact

It is sad, but true. The average age of a homeless person in the U.S. is nine years old.

Build Your Vocabulary by Donating Rice!

This is an amazing site. If you are ever bored or looking for something to do, this is it. It is a vocabulary building "game" where you are given a word and then four choices for synonyms. Each time you get a question right, you donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program which distributes the rice to hungry people across the globe.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Dark Days

I actually saw this documentary a few years ago and I just remembered it the other day.

It is called "Dark Days" and it is about a community of squatters living underground in an abandoned subway tunnel in New York.

This is a must-see. It has amazing cinematography and the soundtrack, by DJ Shadow, is awesome.

Check it out.


EDIT: Here is a link to the full documentary. My friend Alex found it.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=7162991383052101447

Cannibalism

According to the Economic Policy Institute, as of 2001, a “living wage,” or the minimum hourly wage to be able to sustain a family of one adult and two children, is $30,000 a year, or $14 an hour. 60% of Americans earn less than $14 an hour, or the living wage. The vast majority of those earn about half that, at $7 an hour for many entry-level positions. This means that the majority of Americans are struggling to pay rent, health insurance, car insurance, credit interest, groceries, etc. With the relatively recent welfare reform bill signed in 1996 by Clinton, thousands of people are suffering, namely single mothers living far beneath the “living wage”. The poverty line, which is at about half that of the “living wage,” is grossly outdated and is not a substantial measure of poverty. Americans feel relatively confident in the fact that the percent of Americans living under the poverty line hovers somewhere around 13% (a number that I find disgustingly high), but do not realize that many Americans live above the poverty line and yet still cannot afford rent. According to a 1997 report of the National Coalition of the Homeless, “nearly one-fifth of all homeless people (in twenty-nine cities across the nation) are employed in full or part-time jobs” (1).

To me, what this all boils down to, is that capitalism works in a way in which many are left out. Capitalism is the problem. According to the principles of capitalism, businesses operate according to the law of supply and demand, and exist only to raise their bottom line. They do not care for their workers, as there is always a fresh supply of those in poverty willing to fill in when a corporation decides to discard a former employee. What does this create? People working twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week, to feed their children and make rent. What is the point of a life wasted as a wage slave? It seems to me that capitalism has forced us all to sell our lives away for $7 an hour with the pathetic hope of moving up the corporate ladder, as if that will somehow change something and suddenly fill our lives with meaning.

I believe that we can operate our society in a way in which everyone can enjoy life while contributing positively to society. I call this direct action. I call this anarchism.



(1). Direct quote from Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel And Dimed.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One

By Liz Stanton, CPE Staff Economist

1. You've Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a Diamond
The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.

2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their Value
The De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high.

3. Diamonds Have No Resale or Investment Value
Any diamond that you buy or receive will indeed be yours forever: De Beers' advertising deliberately brain-washed women not to sell; the steady price is a tool to prevent speculation in diamonds; and no dealer will buy a diamond from you. You can only sell it at a diamond purchasing center or a pawn shop where you will receive a tiny fraction of its original "value."

4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS
Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.

5. Open-Pit Diamond Mines Pose Environmental Threats
Diamond mines are open pits where salts, heavy minerals, organisms, oil, and chemicals from mining equipment freely leach into ground-water, endangering people in nearby mining camps and villages, as well as downstream plants and animals.

6. Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People's Rights
Diamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures.

7. Slave Laborers Cut and Polish Diamonds
More than one-half of the world's diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children.

8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa
There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.

9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors
Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.

10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond Smuggling
Illicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 million small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants.

References:

Collier, Paul, "Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy," World Bank, June 15, 2000.

Epstein, Edward Jay, "Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?", The Atlantic Monthly, February 1982. www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb/8202diamond1.htm

Global Witness, "Conflict Diamonds: Possibilities for the Identification, Certification and Control of Diamonds," A Briefing Document, June 2000, www.globalwitness.org/text/campaigns/diamonds/reports.html


Human Rights Watch/Asia, "The Small Hands of Slavery: Bonded Child Labor In India," Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project, www.hrw.org/reports/1996/India3.htm .

Human Rights Watch, "Children's Rights: Stop the Use of Child Soldiers;" www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm .

Kerlin, Katherine "Diamonds Aren't Forever: Environmental Degradation and Civil War in the Gem Trade," The Environment Magazine, www.emagazine.com/september-october_2001/0901gl_consumer.html .

Le Billon, Philippe, "Angola's Political Economy of War: The Role of Oil and Diamonds, 1975-2000," African Affairs, (2001), 100, p.55-80.

Mines and Communities, "The Mining Curse: The roles of mining in 'underdeveloped' economies," Minewatch Asia Pacific/Nostromo Briefing Paper, February 1999, www.minesandcommunities.org/Country/curse.htm .

Other Facets, Number 1, April 2001; Number 2, June 2001; Number 3, October 2001, www.partnershipafricacanada.org/hsdp/of.html

That’s Not Your Marble Bleeding...

This is a quote from Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed. In this book Ehrenreich works minimum wage jobs to see if she can survive on them. Here she is a maid:

“Self-restraint becomes more of a challenge when the owner of a million-dollar condo…who is (according to a framed photograph on the wall) an acquaintance of the real Barbara Bush takes me into the master bathroom to explain the difficulties she’s been having with the shower stall. Seems its marble walls have been ‘bleeding’ onto the brass fixtures, and can I scrub the grouting extra hard? That’s not your marble bleeding, I want to tell her, it’s the world-wide working class—the people who quarried the marble, wove your Persian rugs until they went blind, harvested the apples in your lovely fall-themed dining room centerpiece, smelted the steel for the nails, drove the trucks, put up this building, and now bend and squat and sweat to clean it.”

Although I am only about halfway through it, I really recommend this book as it is full of amazing insights such as this and is wonderfully written.

Manifesto

During my spring break I went to Cabo San Lucas in the Baja peninsula in Mexico. The area is fast growing down there, and it is developed almost the entire way to San Jose De Cabo, the next town about 20-30 miles north of the city. But despite Wal-Mart moving in and Sam’s Club and Home Depot, among other large corporations already being there, the growth has not benefited many of the locals. There are million dollar mansions on the beach, five star resorts and hotels, and large corporate chains all around. Yet the contrast is striking between this and how some of the locals live. I noticed while I was at Sam’s Club, that not fifty yards from the parking lot there was a small squatter’s one room shack made out of pieces of scrap aluminum and plywood. I could tell someone was living in it because there were pieces of laundry hanging out on the line outside of it. The conditions looked horrible: clearly no electricity or running water. But I fear it could be getting worse. Instead of helping the community, the government allows large corporations such as Wal-Mart to come in and kill all local business. Hundreds of locals depending on their small convenience stores and other shops will soon be without work. Instead of adopting a policy that gives money or shelter to those in desperate poverty, “SQUATTERS WILL BE PROSECUTED” signs and barbed wire go up around any open land.

This situation is not unique to Baja Sur or Mexico. It is happening across the globe. I find it extremely sad that we live in a world where everyone is looking out for the interests of their wallet while no one is looking out for the people that truly need help. In Mexico the rich get richer while the squatters starve. In America everyone has equal rights, but poor blacks are getting their land taken away from them after hurricane Katrina by eminent domain because their grass is too long. In Sudan big business thrives while children are forced to kill or be killed. In India the elite do not interact with the poor, and the poor cut off their hands and feet to get sympathy from passers by who may drop them a coin.

Something needs to change.

What I propose.

Many governments have clearly conveyed their lack of interest in helping those without the means to help themselves. The favelas in Rio de Janeiro are a good example of the Brazilian government’s neglect of the over one million squatters living in the hills around the city. Many governments are simply unable to help out their large populations of impoverished citizens, while other governments choose to ignore these people. So if the government cannot or will not help, then we, as people, must try.

In order for any real difference to be made, something radical must happen. Therefore I propose an anti-capitalistic approach to economy. The fact is that capitalism by its very nature creates class differences that leave millions behind. I believe that a gift-based economy, as apposed to a trade-based economy, would help to transform the world into a better place. Instead of approaching business with the “what do these people have to offer me?” mentality, a “what can I do to help?” mentality may serve a better purpose. Moreover, I believe in asking for what you want and giving generously.

If every person answered their calling, then we would all have something to share with one another. It is highly unlikely that every single one of those in the work force that sit day-in day-out in a cubicle actually want to be there. I am positive that some wanted to be firemen or artists or musicians or farmers or something other than what they are. What if they all decided to follow their dreams? Everyone would support the artists of the world, creating a more beautiful world in which more of the impoverished could participate. If one in ten cubicle slaves decided to quit their jobs and build community centers and gardens, then more people would have places to sleep and things to eat.

Of course, this has to happen on a large scale for any real difference to be made at the global level. Skeptically you may be thinking, “That sounds impossibly utopian. How can I make any real change if it would take everyone to change as well?” The answer my friend, is that you can make change.

Stop buying from Wal-Mart and start shopping at local businesses. Find a cause you really believe in and tell everyone you know about it. Cultivate a garden in your backyard. Sponsor a local farm and eat local produce. Lobby for a community center in your neighborhood. Reduce the number of hours you work each week. Buy from local artists and musicians. Volunteer with or donate to Oxfam America, Habitat for Humanity, or any other non-profit organization in which you believe. Keep non-perishable food in your car and generously give it to any homeless person you see.

Take it upon yourself to consciously work for a better environment for all and live life the way you truly think it should be lived.