A Race to the Bottom and the Global Economic Abracadabra

                While listening to the radio some days ago in the Washington DC metro area, there was an interview of an air traffic controller in the Frederick county area. The subject was so upset that as part of the United States federal government austerity or sequestration magic, his job would be vamoosed from federal funding. The shocked controller went on to indicate his right wing leaning support for cuts within the government but wondered aloud why his job should be on the cutting block. This is not unique as corporations and individual members of the elite 1% club have used their stooges such as the main street pan-international media to wage regimes of miseducation against public sector workers around the globe.

                So from Cyprus to London England, from Greece to Wall Street America, and from Wisconsin to Ohio there is the renewed mantra to blame the victims of corporate malfeasance and victimize the fatalities of individual greed instead of the so-called makers. When middle income folks within the private sectors lose their jobs and are unable to secure and provide for their families they are quick to point fingers at government workers instead of taking an objective look at the global corporate gluttony. They become impotent to challenge the transfer of jobs abroad and the automation of businesses to render people obsolete in various employment arenas.

                These economic casualties which are perceived as mere collateral damages but are actual systematic offspring of our global economic systems are depressed, demoralized, and dejected and become unable to connect the dots between the disparities in income within their former organizations and their present conditions. There is a failure to link the corporate jets and CEO bonus to the devastation permitted on the common folks. Ours is a race for the crumbs that seeks to scavenge and be content for what miserly benefits that greedy elites deem necessary for us to survive on. We are swift in condemning homeowners that lost their homes in loan mortgage crises without realizing that they were ponds of the banking cartels and/or turning a blind eye to the same scams which the bankers have used from Spain to west coast states in America such as Nevada and California.    

                Consequently, we are presented with a Europe of unimaginable dichotomy like in the bible (religion) for butter (resources) days. At the same time we have more Portuguese and Spaniards heading to Angola than at any time since the global slave trade economy. We now have Europeans openly embracing fascism politics and cultural xenophobia. Amidst the petroleum wealth and boom in Luanda no one questions the Europeans for their workers permits. But in Europe and America it is easier to pick on the foreigners instead of organizing against those from within that specialize in setting up tax havens, shipping jobs around the globe to pay the lowest cost, and reaping astronomical profits. On US television there is an open call to move monies and investments to Ireland whereas urban and rural unemployment remains off the chain with the ensuing societal cost.

                Paradoxically, the race to the bottom is sanctioned by politicians and the corporate media types who are beholden to the corporate status quo. As such they have the masses divided and fighting themselves, for example poor Europeans in America against African Americans and Latinos and African Americans against immigrants. Whilst they keep us bickering and competing for the lowest common denominators, the Dow Jones and other leading financial markets are creating no jobs, depressing wages, gambling with the savings of folks, forcing municipalities into bankruptcies, but making record earnings for the economic/financial gurus and members of the exclusive 1% club. These entitled classes would rather hoard monies and properties to service 3-5centuries of their descendants, whence people are poor, homeless, and dying today.   

                                          Nnamdi F. Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist      

 

               

Spineless President Barack Obama

After watching the first debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, most progressives and Americans were forced to admit that the president was woefully unprepared for the occasion. Mr. Obama had not bothered to prepare intensively and/or he did not consult people like Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts who revealed the real Mr. Wilbur Mitt Romney during the Democratic Party convention. Instead Obama looked lethargic and perplexed when Romney took his act of etch a sketching into power driver. My seven year old son was in the know that Governor Romney was going to say anything in the Denver debate to the American people to seem reasonable and to appear favorable.

However, the performance of President Obama did not totally surprise some of us on the left. Mr. Obama has only stood up to three entities since he assumed the presidency in January of 2009. These are the real terrorists, the assumed terrorist, and progressives. Indeed he has continued with Bush and Cheney policies and even expanded on them. While Obama receives praises for killing Osama bin Laden, he also ordered the assassination of American citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi without any trial. The Colorado domestic issues discussion did not reckon the drone assassination of 16year old Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi who was born in Denver. The young man was targeted by his government 2weeks after his father’s death. The progressives who organized and volunteered their time for the “Yes We Can” campaign were told to shut up and keep out of sight while the regime placated conservative Democrats like Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Hence, the audacity of Governor Romney to get on stage with the President and proclaim how he was in the race for the unemployed and the middle class, though he was one of the forerunners of off-shoring American jobs, investing in tax havens, reaping astronomical tax benefits in the process, and his definition of middle income earners are those that make close to 250,000 per year. Mr. Obama did not reference either the 47% of Americans that Mitt characterized as irresponsible dependent victims who want government handouts or the fact that Massachusetts was 47% in the country at job creation under Romney’s stewardship. While Governor Romney embellished his bipartisan accomplishments and how democrats in the commonwealth extended hands of partnerships, the President did not once state the Republican obstructionism and their expressed desire for him to fail at all cost even when it resulted in detrimental consequences for the nations’ economy.   

Our spineless President Obama did not point out that Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan was in the clandestine meeting planning to derail his economic recovery agenda  on the eve of the his inauguration in 2009 and just before he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 that guaranteed equal pay for women. Since the debate was centered on domestic policies Mr. Obama could have easily asked Mr. Romney about his views on equal pay for equal work and/or asked his challenger if he supported the Supreme Court in their denial of Mrs. Lilly Ledbetter’s attempt to redress the economic injustices against her family. On the subject of women’s right the President could have confronted the debate stage bully on his advocated policies to defund Planned Parenthood and the Republican’s party agenda of denying women their right to choose with regards to rape, incest, and clinical life threatening dangers.

During the October 3rd, 2012 debate Mr. Romney became a born-again supporter of some Wall Street regulations, teachers, and unions. Again Obama did not see any need to counter him on these assertions. President Obama could have forcibly questioned Mitt about his support of Scott Walker the anti- union and teacher bashing governor of Wisconsin and rightwing pal of Representative Paul Ryan of WI. But again the left was not surprised because when the police officers, teachers, and firefighters took to the streets of Madison, the White House remained silence and incognito. They did not take a principled stance to challenge the most radical policies of the tea party and the Koch Brothers’ handsomely funded astroturf machineries. That is why Romney had the effrontery to be unabashedly mendacious in view of nearly 70million Americans that tuned in for the debate.

Consequently, Governor Sununu was able to castigate President Obama a professor of constitutional law as lazy and detached. Whereas the Romney henchman played up some of his and former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s best hits of racial stereotypes, President Obama has indeed been detached from the concerns of progressives.  He needs to go back and listen to Governor Deval Patrick’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. The salient question that Mr. Patrick asked remains “What do we believe?”  What does President Obama believe? When the President fully believes then he would stop playing nice with his opponents. Instead he would be harkening on to the time tested words of Vice President Joe Biden’s mother, “Joe bloody the nose of those school yard bullies.”

Thus in the next debate on foreign affairs President Obama should look at Mitt Romney right in the eyes and inquire how dare you insist on another war when you claim we are currently borrowing monies from China to service our deficits. He could also ask the governor how a Vietnam draft dodger could be championing relentless wars. An interesting question for Wilbur Mitt Romney could be why none of his 5 sons are servicing the US military in the era of September 9-11, Afghanistan, and Iraq. President Obama must probe Governor Romney in terms of jobs and investment about how much he has made from his 1% “blind trust” through his investments in China and why his taxes remains a state secret. When the issue of Libya comes up the commander in chief should stand up and stiffen his backbone while informing the governor that the United States is no longer in the business of supporting dictatorships around the world unlike Mitt’s monies and that new democracies always have their incubation periods.     

            Nnamdi F. Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist 
                                                        
Reference                                                                                                                                                          
 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80701.html

Occupylogy 201: US 2012 Presidential Election, Emerging Struggles between Democrats and Progressives

At the turn of the century the Republicans had grabbed the White House through their Machiavellian exploits in Florida with a Hail Mary pass from the United States Supreme Court and George W. Bush assumed the presidency. When the conservatives arrived in town with their cowboy boots they also came along with their distinct vernaculars such as compassionate conservatism. The nation and the world were then exposed to the practicalities of compassionate conservatism when President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, the Neoconservatives, and Halliburton decided to invade and destroy Iraq under the pretext of “Weapons of Mass Destruction.”  The Republicans also gave us other variations of compassionate conservatism which they sliced up into dosages such as tax cuts for the wealthy, unpaid Medicare Modernization Act, and the Patriot Act alias torture, international rendition, circumventing of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA, and the introduction of warrantless domestic wiretapping. 

The Occupy Movement is ready to take the nation on a different direction with social and economic justice. After challenging and changing the United States national narrative and dialogue from deficits to inequality and fairness last year, the Occupy Movement in America has been hibernating during the mild winter season of 2011-12. The Occupy Movement which was started in New York by progressives and drew social and tactical inspiration from the developments in Africa (Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya), the Middle East (Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria), Greece, and London is now set to further pressurize the political and economic discourse from henceforth to the elections in November. The nation and the world should be prepared for a rude awakening and progressive education of the American public. Members of these progressive factions have displayed their tenacity, discipline, and sense of purpose through their decision to go back to drawing board so that they can strike with precision and passion from May 1st 2012.

Although key sectors of the mainstream American corporate media who brought out the red carpet for the conservative Tea Party Movement and vilified the Occupy Movement might again pretend to be shocked by the patriotic civil disobedient actions we are all going to witness. Fox News, Democrats, and others should be informed that the key bone of contentions remains justice and equality in the distribution of wealth, allocation of burdens, and acceptance of responsibilities in the polity. Despite the near economic collapse of 2008-09 we still have too big to fail banks that are bigger and greedier than before, through the support of the Democrats in congress and at the white house. With the Republicans alienating women through their anti-contraceptives policies, Latinos by their harsh and inhumane immigration stances, and students with their Wall Street high interest rates, hopefully Democrats would decipher the handwriting on the walls.     

                Fortunately, I have been opportune to attend and listen to the community focused mobilization efforts within the Occupy Movement. I submit that since President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have declared their support for same sex marriages; progressives in the United States will have to press the Democrats on five major fronts. These key sectors include the economy, immigration, healthcare, justice, and foreign wars. In order for democratic and independent progressives to support the reelection campaign of President Obama, these key issues have to be addressed with more than lip service. We cannot tolerate an economic dispensation that is angled at the wimps and caprices of the Wall/War Street banks. Instrumental policies like Glass-Steagall Act need to be reinstated as a means of regulating derivatives, hedge funds, and credit swaps. We have to ask President Obama why his administration insists on allowing home owners to be foreclosed upon, whereas the banks were rescued by President Bush’s administration and again by President Obama with taxpayers’ monies. Why does President Obama plan to save only homeowners who have perfect mortgage payments and perfect credit scores?

Ironically, the home mortgage delinquency rate which is close to 6% nationally is a product of the economic recession and an indication of the continuous struggles in the economy. The national unemployment and underemployment is still a source of growing concern to many progressives. In urban cities and rural America the unemployment levels is still hovering within the 16% mark which is double the nation rate of 8.1%. Interestingly, our student populations and all women are currently presented with a choice of foregoing their insurance or having an increase in the student loan rates. We the 99% should be willing to take on the Obama administration which has continued their distant/midnight romance with Wall Street and their too big to fail banks. Like Jesus Christ the preeminent progressive we need to take up our whips to chase the Wall Street money changers and money doublers out of the exploitative dominance in the economy. How long are we going to keep on sending Wall Street banks and traders our retirement incomes for them to fleece through their various scams such as derivative betting and credit swap gambling?

                Another area progressives need to address is the area of immigration. We cannot allow immigrants that come into this country due to a plethora of reasons like others before them, to be demonized after the economy was run aground by the 1% in Wall Street and Washington. There needs to be a comprehensive immigration policy that seeks to strengthen families and communities instead of separating families. Though we should enthusiastically support The Dream Act which is all about granting citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States for many years, we ought to proceed with caution. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes and missteps that have become the hallmark of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 otherwise known as ObamaCare with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform. During that debacle the Democrats took a bill that could have resulted in either Universal healthcare coverage or single payer healthcare and watered it down with the majority slice apportioned to the for-profit Health Insurance Industrial Complex.

                With our proclivity for equality and justice it remains expedient for the Occupy Movement to fight against the double standards within the American justice system. When there are these methodical disparities in prosecutions and sentencing inside the criminal justice system, what we are left with is a banana republic with kangaroo courts that are set asides for the interests and vestiges of the 1%. Some of us that are contemporary immigrants have experienced these “Big Man” or “Oga Mentality” regimes where so-called leaders become invisible and entrenched in sustaining their powers. When a nation becomes unwilling to prosecute war criminals from the President Bush and Vice President Cheney administrations that circumvented the local laws, violated international treaties, and authorized factory scale torture, then Houston you know we got some damn problems. When Wall Street executives are allowed to bring the nation to its knees because of their greed and most of them are back to business as usual within a span of 3years, then we have transcended from too big to fail banks to systematic whitemail.

                Since progressives comprise of large segments of the independent population we need to organize and press the Democrats on their habits of sanctioning unjust wars. The Occupy Movement and those of us within the social justice and economic justice movements need to fight against the indefinite wars that have cropped up in Pakistan and Yemen. After the sad lessons of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq we should not allow the US corporate media, Neoconservatives, the US congress, Democrats, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee AIPAC, and President Benjamin Netanyahu to drag us into another unjust war in Iran. The United States of America has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world two hundred times over and Israel also has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the Middle East two hundred times over. These are facts that the Iranian government (religious and political) is very cognizant of and they would not think about attacking neither United States nor Israel despite their acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Our provocations and warmongerings against the fraudulent Iranian government would eventually weaken the Green Movement leaders and activists that arose after the rigging of the Iranian presidential election in 2009. The Iran Green Movement has the capacity of changing their regime with the advent of another Persian Spring.  

In conclusion, the progressive community needs to rally against the ever available surplus in the budgets when it comes to matters of warfare and the sudden deficits when it is time to investing in domestic policies. We cannot be underfunding/defunding the education of the present and future generations with senseless wars and warmongering initiates such as the United States nuclear shield. When teachers are fired and schools are bordered up like we are witnessing in some states in all levels of education around the country, this results in diminished competitiveness in the international spheres. As a result America is bound to have fewer inventors and pioneers to continue sustainable development and manufacturing communities. The Occupy Movement must fight for common sense regulations in the banking and energy sectors. We do not have the finances to produce slick adverts/propagandas like Exxon, Chevron, British Petroleum, Halliburton, JP Morgan Chase but we can still get the citizenry behind our messages. We have to force Democrats to deny unnecessary tax breaks to companies while making sure that they pay adequate corporate taxes.  Individuals that constitute the 1% in our population need to be taxed at higher rates without tax loopholes such as charitable deductions and offshore banking/investment accounts. Lack of justifiable taxations results in the funding of plutocratic projects like the proverbial Voters’ ID disenfranchisement and Stand Your Ground Laws by the 1% income earners.  

Nnamdi F. Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist