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WHY ARE "PIRATES" SEIZING SHIPS? ARE US BANKS SEIZING US? WHERE ARE OUR SNIPERS?Submitted by Jeff Buster on Sun, 04/12/2009 - 18:32.
I don't see much of a difference between what is happening off of Africa and what has happened with Citi, Morgan Stanley, Greenberg's AIG, BoA, and the rest of our patriot corporations here in the USA. Any discussion? I will say that it is very good that a group of people can show up on a Saturday (4.11.09) and wave hand made signs and use their bullhorn in most places in America. I'll bet that the photo above would be appreciated by the Free Stamp designers Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. I think this honest, extemporaneous exercise is just what they had in mind.
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Those are poor and them are rich
Wow, this was typo city so I tried to rehash it and also to fixthe grammar, might be still rather clunky sentance structure...
I was pretty tired when I wrote this.
Something positive can be said for the efforts of the 'pirates' and the reasons they've been forced to retaliate. There's been an extreme amount of Toxic waste left in Somalia proper and on the shorelines. So much so that people have died and their offspring are born deformed. Some of it was legally brought there and then mishandled which makes that transport ethically senseless (nobody shoulb be sending massive amounts of toxic waste to a civil war zone) and a large quantity has just been dumped in the Ocean and fouled the coastline of Somalia by organized crime and criminal acts. Some of this is radiated water that is a illegally dumped and transported material from Europe and other places. This was then made horrific by a typhoon in 2005 and so the people are now living within toxic waste and nobody is coming around to help clean it up.
In Somalia, the boats that are being used for 'piracy' are viewed by many and funded as defense task forces to protect the Coastline. I can recall about two years ago about five hundred people being poisoned by radiated waste so severely that it was presumed that they would probably die a quick death. Child are being documented as being harmed and infants suffer extreme birth defects
Some of the ships that the "pirates' are purposely trying to thwart are fishing vessels because during the period of lack of government other countries with fishing fleets raked the coast and devastated the fishery of this huge area. Many fishing villages in Somalia have been to the point of starvation for five or more years. There are no fish left for them to survive on. I think the most aggressive exploiters of this were the Taiwanese and Chinese fleets and they did the most extensive damage long ago
The reason why this is so different from our banks is that our government itself allowed and then turn a blind eye despite warnings from the IMF and such that this type of transaction was foolish gambling. Then all it took was the banks and hedge funds to exploit to the point of insanity the very thing that they been authorized to do. There are recent estimates that the total amount of derivative that the gov't upholding is as much as 200 trillion dollars which is out and out fraud, except that it's got the US governments name all over it and the treasury is not willing to admit this because it finds the real truth harder to bear and would rather just authorize another bail-out (we're talking about bailout #3...another 750 billion
So I would say Somalia and the US banks are actually juxtaposed. One a reactionary tactic and citizen's militia; from a tattered society of people who have nothing. Then completely opposite the bankers; a class of extreme rich that wanted more and were unconcerned that it might destroy the system cause they've got special parachutes. Even though they know that the system has been broken they are still are gonna get paid (I'm not referring to bonuses but to the huge money figures that are compensation for bad loses that never would have happened anyway if they US government wouldn't have been agreeing to be payee of last resort and ever so willing to payout all the money. It was the betting gamble action of the assessments inherent within the credit swaps which is were many of these folks are going to get their big money payoff...unfortunately the Treasury won't tell anybody who all this money that they payout is actually going to.
sudden justice in Somalia, but no bank presidents shot
Glowbawl, I strongly agree with your last paragraph. Somalia and the US banks are juxtaposed.
Timely Bizarro
Disrupt IT
nice coverage
of the Somalia issues today on Democracy Now!
Analysis: Somalia Piracy Began in Response to Illegal Fishing and Toxic Dumping by Western Ships off Somali Coast
President Obama vowed an international crackdown to halt piracy off the coast of Somalia Monday soon after the freeing of US cargo ship captain Richard Phillips, who had been held hostage by Somali pirates since last Wednesday. While the pirates story has dominated the corporate media, there has been little to no discussion of the root causes driving piracy. We speak with consultant and analyst Mohamed Abshir Waldo. In January, he wrote a paper titled “The Two Piracies in Somalia: Why the World Ignores the Other?” more... (transcript will appear on this site tomorrow)
and an earlier article in wardheer news from january 09
OF COURSE, IF YOU DON'T READ THE LINKS YOU WON'T KNOW WHAT IT SAYS...
exceptionalism and truimphalistics
What you are hearing is a bit of our cultural PR sham pushing American exceptionalism and our regard for places in the world that have become melt-downs and sink holes. Our involvement in these places contributes to their misery to such a degree that their survival is questionable. Haiti, Angola, Liberia, Somalia...(yeah and Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Pakistan) much of this is cold war appied thought that has upheaved these poor people's only hold on the Earth. So in this case this notion of three shots, three dead, all taken care of is smoke and mirrors. Remember the ten CIA agents Bush sent to help save the Liberian's toward the end of their civil war or the 8 or so people who died in combat over the course of the entire first Iraq war. They are sound bytes for our American effiectiveness. I guess it useful so people don't get all bogged down in what we really do do and the damage involved overall.
So my point becomes our own self made problems we won't do much about unless it actually kills us. They can be ignored...(environment, health care, poverty) The worst situational places on the otherside of the Earth on the other hand we won't do anything about either unless of course there needs to be a kill...we kill them and kill them efficiently we do. It becomes a PR lesson for the rest of the world...you mess with us and this is what you'll get. We all pay much more for this PR than all the other PR industry (we pay in terms of a defense budget that can fight anything but actually nothing).