We see that one quarter of the world's youth lack jobs or education. This is found out by the British Economist. This is one fact that proves the reality that the modern capitalist system has a huge failure in offering young human beings a future except mass poverty and social misery (except in some exceptions). 26 million young people in the developed world are classified as NEETS. NEETS stands for "no in employment, education, or training" according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data cited by the Economist. There are 260 million young human beings that are NEETS in the developing world as well. The expansion of the NEETS comes from those in the developed world according to the ILO or the International Labor Organization. That percentage of young folks in NEETS has increased by 2.1 percentage points since 2008. It is hitting 15.8 percent. As the ILO concluded, “this means one in six young people [in developed countries] were without a job and not in education or training.” The ILO mentioned that this category has increased in nations that are most affected by the 2008 crash and the subsequent European debt crisis. “In Estonia, Iceland, Ireland and Spain, the NEET rate increased by more than 5 percentage points between 2008 and 2010,” wrote the organization. We know that a vast number of young human beings who are employed work in either temporary or informal jobs. In 2012, the ILO reported the growth of temporary employment for young people has nearly doubled since the onset of the economic crisis. The ILO noted that part time employment for young human beings in the developed world increased from 20 percent in 2000 to nearly a third in 2011. Part time work has accelerated. One survey has found that in the United States has replaced over 150,000 full time jobs with part time ones in the past three months. Between April and July, the amount of human beings employed grew by 526,000. The number employed part time grew by 684,000 according to the Labor Department's household survey. This year, part time work has made up of 77 percent of the job growth so far. The number of part time workers in America has reached a record of 8.2 million. This is the new normal. The vast amount of the economic recovery deals with low paying jobs with retailers, restaurants, temporary staffing firms, and home health care (this made up nearly half the new jobs in 2013). 90 percent of the world's youth is found in developing countries. The ILO said that half of the developing world's youth is employed in the informal economy. Many kids are vulnerable. Self-employed developing youth accounts for 56.2 per cent of the employed in developing regions in 2011. In Greece, youth unemployment grew to the staggering level of 64.9 percent last month, up from 54.1 percent in March 2012. For the EU as a whole, youth unemployment rose to 23.2 percent. According to the ILO, youth unemployment soared by 25 percent in the developed world between 2008 and 2012. This proves that mainstream capitalism alone can never work to eliminate poverty or reduce it in a radical fashion at all. There are many workers in poverty and destitution. The ruling class wants to use this crisis as a means to justify wage cuts, concessions, and austerity measures against human beings. It is reactionary retrograde agenda to revert back to the Gilded Age of the 19th century. It took struggle against the elite for the limited concessions to come to the working class like the eight-hour day, living wages, and retirement benefits. We have to fight war and fight for revolutionary changes in society. We need to advance human need not private profit or private greed.
Folks are talking about health care more. There have been town hall forums about it and more folks are rebutting the goals of the Republicans (which is to have a health care system that is totally privatized). There is something better than even the Affordable Care Act. That is the single payer, universal health care system. The deal is that the patients should be the priority in handling health care including the sick. A great health care system can benefit the entire economy and the world society. Even now, some can't afford insurance costs for asthma and diabetes. Some struggle to receive health care in America now. Some want our taxes as a means for us to create a national healthcare system. Some want a portion of our tax money to create strong health care for the American citizenry. Even much of the Wall Street doesn't pay taxes or their fair rate all of the time. Our money should go to benefit our communities and our families. The United States rank first in costs, but 37th in health outcomes in the world. We are even worse for infant mortality and life expectancy. A tax funded national, universal health care system can negotiate prices for prescription drugs, medical devices, and services, etc. It can lower the cost of delivering care. Taxpayers do not have to worry about paying for someone else’s care. We would be paying for our own care without raising taxes at all. The tax subsidies to buy insurance under the ACA mostly move money around to pay for private insurance for some that don't have it (that can allow insurers to take 20 cents off the dollar). It would be more efficient to use taxes to pay for everybody's healthcare directly, which eliminates the middleman and the shell game. Every industrialized nation on Earth has universal health care coverage provided by public and private insurers except for America. That is why the current healthcare industry in the States benefits select corporate interests seeking profit when we should seek health. Even the ACA has some legitimate parts, but it is the first step and not the final goal. The final goal is universal, single payer health care for all Americans. We still have an uphill battle though. Ever since the Presidency of Reagan, the me first philosophy has grown and caused huge social & economic damage in our country. Also, many establishment Democrats have advanced massive cuts to social programs as well from Social Security, to welfare. It is not right to force all Americans to purchase insurance from private companies. It is right to advance single payer, universal health care in our society though. We have another threat too. We have a housing crisis in the world as well. The private banks not Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collectively were responsible for the current housing crisis. The White House is in error again to allow government mortgage guarantees to go directly to the private banks (which can't be trusted to act responsibly). This signifies the fact that the White House agrees with Wall Street neoliberalism just like the Republicans (who ignore that corporate corruption influenced the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the resulting global economic meltdown in 2008). The White House is calling for phasing out the Federal National Mortgage Association called Fannie Mae and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation called Freddy Mac. They are quasi-governmental agencies can be traced to the New Deal policies of the 1930's. Ironically, federal intervention and loan guarantees grew the U.S. housing market. Yet, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operated much like private corporations ever since then President Lyndon Johnson amended their charters in 1968. Now, some want to leave all markets including housing at the power of the private sector. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not have major involvement in the housing crisis. As Mike Whitney points out, in Counterpunch, “More than 84 percent of the sub-prime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions. It was private-label subprime mortgages that triggered the panic in the secondary market that crashed the financial system.” Wall Street wants all gifts to come to the private sector, which is why they want Fannie and Freddie Mac to go. The reality is that we are fighting privatization and corporatism not the legitimate expression of the general welfare of society at all.
Folks are fighting for legal justice since the criminal justice system has been corrupted even admitted by reactionaries like Rand Paul. The commercial that deals with SYG overall is the fight against vigilantism against innocent black life, it is about opposing police brutality, and it is about advancing racial justice in the world. Trayvon Martin was an unarmed young male. He was harming no one before the incident at all. He had every right to walk in the vicinity. George Zimmerman violated a Florida Statue that forbids aggressive stalking of an innocent human being. Zimmerman continuously stalked Trayvon Martin when he was committing no crime whatsoever. Trayvon Martin has the right to defend himself. The Zimmerman case has been debated before and many credible voices disagree with reactionary views. Also, SYG is beyond simple self-defense. Many defectors of the law question many aspects of the law. The law advances vigilantism and has been ambiguously used in the criminal justice system. A recent study out of Texas A&M University found an 8 percent increase in homicides over a ten-year period in states with “Stand Your Ground” style laws in place. Another study by the Urban Institute found twice as many homicides are deemed justifiable in “Stand Your Ground” states. The studies found no reason to think the laws do anything to reverse the large racial disparities that exist when homicides are ruled justifiable, and some evidence they actually worsen the gap. Nor was any evidence found that “Stand Your Ground” laws deter burglary, robbery, or assault in a radical fashion. There are many laws that permit legal self-defense before SYG existed. Zimmerman was not tried under SYG, but he supports it. The struggle continues for racial justice. We should disagree with the extrajudicial murder of young, innocent black human beings like Trayvon Martin has experienced. There are many folks across the spectrum of the gun debate that has reservations about certain aspects of SYG. Racial discrimination and a racist criminal justice system are still realities in America. If someone denies these realities, then that person is a liar. I realize the truth more now. Juries are never omnipotent. If a strange man (who is not an officer) was stalking me, then I would not submit under his authority. Trayvon Martin has every right to ignore the words of a non cop when he was innocent of any crime. This man was not a cop and he violated a Florida Statue, because he did stalked Trayvon Martin in an aggressive way. Trayvon was talking on his cell phone with his friend when she heard Trayvon ask, "Why are you following me?" That happened within a minute of Trayvon's death. So, there were less than 20 seconds have passed since Martin started running away. Less still since Zimmerman got out of his car to follow him (which of course can’t be justified). Zimmerman should have been guilty of stalking. He thinks that a kid walking down the street in the rain and talking on his cell phone is suspicious. George Zimmerman called 911, but still insisted on getting out of his truck to follow the boy. This, it should be noted, violates the Procedures of the Neighborhood Watch of which he was a member of. Not to mention that Zimmerman made contradictory statements in the duration of the case. For example, Witnesses testified to having heard a longer, louder exchange than what Zimmerman described. In his statements, Zimmerman has changed the alleged words Trayvon used. Zimmerman claims that he screamed repeatedly for help but also that Trayvon used a hand to cover his mouth and nose, cutting off his air supply. Serino played one of the 911 calls for Zimmerman and asked if the screams heard in the background were his. "No, sir," Zimmerman said. Serino also said, "That's you. Are you hearing yourself?" Zimmerman said, "Um, it doesn't sound like me." In the same interview, Officer Singleton said that if Zimmerman's mouth was covered, the screaming would have stopped. Zimmerman said that Trayvon landed up to 30 punches, a claim Serino said in testimony that he didn't believe because his injuries were "minor." He also testified that he doubted Trayvon knocked Zimmerman to the ground with one punch, in part because Zimmerman outweighed the teen by roughly 50 pounds. Zimmerman said that after shooting Trayvon, he spread his arms and pinned them to the ground. But the first neighbor and first officer to arrive both testified that Trayvon's hands were underneath his body, which was lying face down. DNA evidence ruled out any real possibility that Trayvon ever touched Zimmerman's gun. The only DNA evidence on the gun's grip was that of George Zimmerman. None was Trayvon's. Zimmerman also claimed that Trayvon went for Zimmerman's holster. Anthony Gorgone, a DNA lab analyst for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, testified as an expert witness that “Zimmerman's holster tested positive for only Zimmerman's DNA as well.” There are no bushes to jump out of where Zimmerman claims he was assaulted. This is clearly evident on the video where Zimmerman walked through his version of what happened with some Sanford police. Zimmerman claimed in the interview with Sean Hannity that he had never heard of Florida’s infamous “Stand your Ground” law, and portrayed himself as unschooled in legal defenses for killing someone. Yet, repeated testimony and school records show Zimmerman was well-versed in Florida's “self-defense” law. How can I trust him 100 percent? I cannot. Folks know full well that lie detector tests are rarely admissible in the court of law. No lie detector test is perfect. Zimmerman has a real history of beating up a woman, assaulting a cop, and he might to be guilty of child molestation. Just because he was not convicted of those crimes doesn't he is innocent of these atrocities. He is some folks' hero not mine. I do not have a nonsensical reply to the enemy. Some folks just deny racial discrimination in society and a racial judicial system, which is the enemy's agenda all along. Some want to minimize black suffering as a means to justify reactionary laws. Folks like Limbaugh, Beck, and O'Reilly want some perverted world society where blacks are docile and submissive to Eurocentric cultural norms. On the other hand, we as blacks have the right to be independent and stand up against evil extrajudicial deaths. I do not have ignorance. Others have ignorance about the imperfections of SYG which studies show. I have every free speech right to disagree with an unjust law and to disagree with police brutality too.
One of the troubling realities in Haiti is how Haiti is still being exploited by the foreign corporate elite. Journalist Julie Levesque have conclusively mentioned about how many corporate interests are building luxury hotels, sweat shops and deregulation in the nation of Haiti. There are many Haitians now in displacement camps. Ezili Danto is a Haitian author and human rights attorney. He heard Luigi R. Einaudi make a shocking comment in 2004 about the lie that Haitians have no right to run Haiti, but the international community does. Luigi is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Assistant Secretary General at the Organization of American States. In 2004, Haiti was celebrating its 200 years of independence with it democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide created efforts to raise the minimum wage and create other social measures for the majority of Haitians living in extreme poverty. Aristide also wanted to nationalize the country's resources. This move was to create more money for Haitians and less for multinationals. Soon, he was overthrown via a coup d'état orchestrated by the U.S., France, and Canada. We see that still now that the international community is running Haiti in a colonial fashion again. Now, there has been a slow construction of shelters and basic infrastructure of the Haitian majority. Yet, there has been the rapid rise of luxury hotels for foreigners. It is disgraceful that aid money is being utilized as a means to build some of these luxury hotels at the expense of providing Haitians with basic necessities. Most of the aid money went into donor countries' business, government agencies, and NGOs. International aid has been readily used as a capitalist scheme to develop markets in the South while growing businesses for the North. This is mostly not helping the Haitians, but the elite. Many faucets have run dry in Haiti. Years ago the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund invested humanitarian aid money in a five star hotel, as some 500,000 Haitians were still in displaced camps. Folks are still suffering poverty in Haiti. The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund recently invested 2 million dollars in the Royal Oasis Hotel. This comes in the poverty stricken metropolitan area filled with camps housing hundreds of thousands. Now, as 300,000 Haitians are still living in camps, a “new Marriott hotel rising from the rubble in Haiti is getting a $26.5 million financial boost” from the International Financial Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank Group. The luxury hotel is meant for the elite not the poor collectively of Haiti at all. We do not need luxury hotels in Haiti. Haiti needs jobs, infrastructure, and other benefits to help all of the Haitian human beings. The IFC funds this project and is part of the World Bank. We know about the World Bank. The World Bank has been criticized for previous initiatives like the Project for Participatory Community Development (PRODEP). An eight month investigation by Haiti Grassroots Watch found that PRODEP “helped undermine an already weak state, damaged Haiti’s ‘social tissue,’ carried out what could be called ‘social and political reengineering,’… raised questions of waste and corruption… contributed to Haiti’s growing status as an ‘NGO Republic’… damaged traditional solidarity systems and in some cases even strengthened the power of local elites.” (World Bank “success” undermines Haitian democracy, Haiti Grassroots Watch, December 20, 2012). The World Bank is dealing with mining and trying to rewrite the Haitian constitution as a means to benefit mining companies. Haitian mineral resources alone have been estimated at $20 billion. “U.S. and Canadian investors have spent more than $30 million in recent years on exploratory drilling and other mining-related activities in Haiti.” (Trenton, op. cit.). The reconstruction in Haiti has been slow. Even the U.S. Government Accountability Office or the GAO criticized the USAID for its lack of transparency, multiple delays cost overruns, and reduced goals. USAID has a history of lax infrastructure development, which has harmed Haiti reconstruction. The North wants to destroy food sovereignty of the South as a means to create a market for exploitation (which international bodies maintain huge influence in the South via the World Bank and the IMF). Many workers in Haiti earn less than $5 a day. Many Haitians are still displaced in slum like housing. Some camps are in ecologically damaged areas in the nation. Port-au-Prince still has huge slums where there is lack of jobs and water is hard to find. The international community is growing neo-colonialism in Haiti via its companies. Many jobs have below standard wages as a means to boost capitalist profits. There is a slow reconstruction effort and a rise of luxury hotels. That is a disgrace. Racist white supremacy and slavery are still enacted in Haiti. We have the right to advance real justice for all Haitians.
The March on Washington in 2013 will be filled with a lot of real human beings that want jobs, justice, and liberty for all human beings. Yet, it will also be filled with establishment figures that want to exploit the March as a means to gain more recruits for the establishment Democratic Party, which is just as pro elite as the Republican Party is. The difference is that the GOP is the wolf while the Democrats are the foxes as Malcolm X eloquently mentioned decades ago. We must have real power not neoliberalism. To glamorize the White House on all issues when it protected Wall Street, the massive Western Empire, and other evils in society is truly disappointing on the part of some individuals. That has nothing to do with the true agenda of the anniversary of the March on Washington, D.C. The March on 1963 was about the creation of real jobs not cozying up with Wall Street interests. We have to reject the police state and reject imperial designs if we want to be a truly independent movement for humane justice. We have the right to confront the establishment and not integrate with it. We should continue to fight racism, militarism, and materialism. It is important to note that the Dr. King of 1968 was much different from the Dr. King of 1963. The 1963 March on Washington had some folks who tried to accommodate the demands of Kennedy, but by 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to organize a civil disobedient crisis in Washington (as a means to make awareness to poverty in America). By that time, Dr. King was in direct conflict with the President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1968. Malcolm X called the March the "Farce on Washington," because he felt that it was too moderate as being aligned with the demands of the establishment. Still, we can never discount the thousands of sincere human beings that went into the March as a means to advance equality including justice back 50 years. There were a lot of strong Brothers and strong Sisters that came to the March back then. Dr. King after the 1963 March on Washington did the right thing by opposing LBJ's war in Vietnam. He connected foreign war with domestic poverty in the sense that funding the military industrial complex harmed the poor domestically. The strength and legitimate aspect of the March on Washington was that it gave human beings the opportunities to voice their concerns. Likewise, we should realize that we can never bow before establishment Democrats or establishment Republicans for our liberation. Malcolm X was right that we must be political Independents and use self-determination as a means to gain our rightful liberation. We can never justify drone strikes and warrantless NSA spying as commemorating this March 50 years. We should use the anniversary as a means to continue to fight for liberation and to continue to fight for the end of the evil war on terror. We are not in the era of the fulfillment of Dr. King's Dream, but we should continue to fight for it though. The Dream shall never die.
By Timothy
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