| What about Gandhi?
By Antonio C. Abaya Written on Dec. 03, 2008 For the Standard Today, December 04 issue The daring attack by Muslim militants on several high-profile targets in Mumbai last week has stunned the political and security leadership of India. Which may explain why various narratives of the incident have been hard to reconcile with each other. Depending on who's saying what, there were ten or thirteen militants, of whom nine were killed and one was captured. Or six were killed and seven were captured. It is hard to imagine that only ten or 13 militants could attack ten or 12 targets, simultaneously or one after another, killing 179 people (or was it 193?), of whom six or 12 were foreigners, including five (or six) Israelis or American Jews.. Or that an unspecified number of militants were routed out of the Oberoi Hotel, leaving 30, later reduced to 24, bodies behind. At the Taj Mahal Hotel, one or maybe three militants were holding one or perhaps five persons hostage, but were finally all killed. I think the first thing Indian authorities should learn from thus tragic incident is how to count accurately, and to assign one official spokesman or woman to release the presumably accurate official numbers ASAP to pre-empt guesswork by various media agencies feeding on rumors... The official story line is that the militants came to Mumbai by ship from Pakistan: two Pakistani ships, later reduced to one, were seized. From the ship(s), the militants were landed by rubber dinghies to make their daring assault on Mumbai. Who were these militants? A previously unknown group, Dekkan Mujahedeen, claimed credit for the attack, which has been called India's 9/11. Later, after the sole (?) captured attacker was interrogated, it was announced that the assault was planned and executed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, ("The Army of the Righteous"),a Pakistan-based Islamist group that has carried out earlier attacks on Indian targets, including the Parliament building in New Delh in December 2001.. Although they cannot strictly be classified as suicide bombers, the militants launched their assault apparently knowing that they would not come out of it alive. They were shaheed or martyrs of the Islamic faith, who died in the process of killing infidels � be they Hindus, Jews or Christians, especially Americans and Britons � and who each has now been welcomed in Heaven by those legendary 72 virgins. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) has declared Hindus and Jews as "enemies of Islam." In 2006, it declared a fatwa on Pope Benedict XVI and urged Muslims to assassinate him for his controversial remarks about Mohammed and Islam. Also in 2006, LET militants bombed a train, killing 211 passengers and injuring 407 others. From 1970 to 2004, 12,539 persons have been killed in terrorist attacks in India, according to the Global Terrorism Database of the University of Maryland. And not all of them were Hindus killed by Muslims. In 2002, as many as 2,000 Muslims were killed by Hindu paramilitary militias such as the Bajrang Dai n the state of Gujarat alone. In 2008, scores of Christians have been killed by the Bajrang Dai in the state of Orissa, for refusing to convert to Hinduism. India has become one of the most violence-racked countries in the world, along with Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. What ever happened to Mohandas Gandhi, the universal icon for non-violence, who is credited with having inspired the non-violent Civil Rights movement under Martin Luther King in the US, the dismantling of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the People Power "Revolution" in the Philippines, the largely bloodless overthrow of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union? In an article in the October 25 issue of the International Herald Tribune, - appropriately titled Forget Gandhi, violence is now the chosen path - Anand Giridharadas, wrote from, also appropriately, Mumbai, that: "From Mumbai to Bengal to the central plains, violence is achieving an exalted new status even by this region's bloody standards. Politically motivated beating and burning and killing, never wholly absent from the subcontinent, have become more than spasmodic human failings. They have started to replace hunger strikes, sit-ins and marches as the basic tools of Indian political life, guiltlessly deployed, fatally effective. "Forget what you've heard about Gandhi and nonviolence in India. This is a nation of militias now�." The author was writing not just about political violence. In his Mumbai, taxi drivers went on strike against a new city ordinance against ageing and decrepit taxicabs, and those drivers who did not support the strike had their cabs' windows smashed. Later on another strike was called, this time against immigrants from Northern India who were being given franchises to drive taxicabs. Their cabs' windows were also smashed. Mumbai nationalists also staged protests against shopkeepers who displayed store signs only in English, not in the local Marathi language. Their shop windows were also smashed. When the airline Jet Airways laid off 1,900 workers due to the global financial crisis, the same nationalist group � led by the Hindu rabble-rouser Raj Thackeray � vowed that no Jet Airways would be allowed to take off from Mumbai airport unless the 1,900 workers were rehired. Continued Anand: "Maoist insurgents are firebombing their way through central India, winning control over some destitute areas. The government's response? More violence. Government security forces, in tandem with a vigilante group called Salwa Judum, have, according to Human Rights Watch, engaged in 'threats, beatings, arbitrary arrests and detention, killings, pillage and burning of villages to force residents into supporting Salwa Judum.' "Meanwhile, Muslim extremists blow up markets, Hindu extremists slaughter Christians and politicians convene commissions. "Whatever its reputation, India has never exactly been a nation of pacifists. Gandhi represented just one strand of thinking, and his view is not the only one to have prevailed. From Kashmir's jihad to various secessionisms to Hindu-Muslim riots, political violence is as Indian as tandoori chicken�.. "This political fragmentation pits tribe against tribe. It has corroded the faith among Indians that the institutions that hear and answer grievances � the police, courts, media � are neutral. All increasingly are seen as biased, answerable to their different masters, rather than impartial executors of the public good. "All contribute to a growing sense of powerlessness. And so if you are a leader of a political faction that wants to be heard, it is not irrational to believe you need a militia of violent young men to make yourself heard��" Sad. Those who naively believe that federalism, exemplified by India, is the cure for ethnic and sectarian violence should look more closely at India and weep.***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in acabaya.blogspot.com. Tony on YouTube in www.tapatt.org. To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. . OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to "What about Gandhi?" Toyota versus Ford Thailand and the Philippines Juana is Here! The Coming American Revolution I think Federalism is just another political make-up but the real intention is to have a quicker and easier access to public fund in favor of a few's quest to become richer, or maybe another way of protecting their self interest. Gregg Ignacio, (by email), Dec. 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony Abaya: I like this article on "Forget about Gandhi" Reaction. Why are we surprise. The Good Book of Adam and Abel. And Abel's name is forever cursed. My regret about "violence " in general, is it gives, even a narrow segment of the population, to vent their ire. In the case of India, Hindus against the Muslims and vice versa. As you the article implied, similar situation, Palestinians vs. against the Israelis. Reminds me of someone who wrote. The two peoples, are like two scorpions, inside one bottle. It was the Palestinians fault with the "nagba" happened. They should not have left. Even in the worst case scenario, the Israeli's would not have eliminated many of thems. The Arab leaders, of the time, was thinking of use the "Palestinian diaspora" as a cause celebre, an excuse to command. Continue dissecting are problems. Please explore this issue: "Would the Filipinos of the current diaspora, be able to change the current home situation? The Filipinos of Rizal and M H del Pilar's generation did. Max Fabella, (by email), Florida, Dec. 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, You paint a scary picture. But given today's huge populations and massive poverty, it is not too difficult to see a future where frustrations sprouting from these two fundamental issues create other problems as what we just saw with Mumbai. It may be difficult for those who have not experienced how it is to be dirt poor all their lives -- and worse -- uneducated, to understand how easy it is to cross the line from what is generally considered as moral once rationalized by a powerful force like cultural vindictiveness disguised as righteousness. Regards, Dennis Acop, (by email), Dec. 04, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, On the Mumbai militants, you wrote: "Although they cannot strictly be classified as suicide bombers, the militants launched their assault apparently knowing that they would not come out of it alive. They were shaheed or martyrs of the Islamic faith � who each has now been welcomed in Heaven by those legendary 72 virgins." It is not incorrect to describe the 72 virgins as legendary, since there is no direct evidence in the Qur'an to support their existence. It is wrong to say, however, that the militants are martyrs of the Islamic faith. And it is presumptuous of you to claim to know what goes on in Heaven (although I presume you were just being sarcastic). What you call "legend" comes from a Hadith (tradition) that says "The smallest reward [each] for the people of Heaven is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine and ruby, as wide as the distance from [Damascus] to [Yemen]." This particular Hadith has technical weaknesses in its chain of transmitters and is therefore not considered authentic, though it is listed in an authoritative collection. As a result, Muslims are not required to believe in it, though many inevitably do. Are terrorists welcomed by 72 virgins in Heaven? The question is misleading. Would 72 harp-playing, white, winged, little girls sound better? Anyone who gets into Heaven will get its reward, in whatever form it comes; it's not specific to shaheed or martyrs. The more important question is, who is privileged to enter heaven? Islam is unambiguous on the issue of suicide and hurting innocent people; they're completely sinful. Willy Calinawan, (by email), Pasig City, Dec. 05, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, The killers and assassins in mainstream Philippine-outbacks and cities are mostly, if not all, politically connected and their masterminds are the corrupt-power hungry politicos. While the Muslims in Mindanao, Sulu and Basilan are said to be more concerned with ancestral domains, as media reports seem to indicate, in Mumbai and most Muslim nation-communities the motivation is religion oriented. Which is worst is anybody's guess. In the end, the "innocents" are the victims. I read about the two year-old Israeli lad whose parents were killed in the Mumbai incident and I shed real tears for that little boy. In Mindanao Muslim separatists are running amuck blaming government with what they are doing! They blame everyone, including the rats but themselves. What a world we live in! What's happening to us? Is this "THE SIGN"? Tell us. God help us. Jose Regino, (by email), Zamboanga City, Dec. 05, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, I suspect that somehow a segment of the Indian intelligence community got wind of this diabolical plan but, like in most cases where intelligence is compartmented and jealously guarded by competing intelligence services, the information falied to get circulated in time to appropriate parties for preventive or prophylactic operations. To overcome this typical problem, a top-level coordinating council, where all credible intel on terrorism is efficiently analyzed and acted upon, should be created reporting only to the highest authorities. A central operations command should also be in place for the government to have the nimbleness and flexibility to deal with specific terrorist threats and/or acts - ideally on land, sea and air. During my time as SILG and head of the Anti-Terror Committee, I formed a Loop Center precisely for this purpose, with the loop (or circle) symbolizing seamlessness in intelliigence and operations. After our scare with Ramzi Youssef et al and the Ipil raid in 1995, we managed to tighten the nuts and bolts that kept the country safe and sound until the end of FVR's term. In the case of our seamen whose safety are threatened by Somali pirates, the government should consider the feasibility of deploying maritime special ops teams on ships with Filipino crews that pass through the Horn of Africa in cooperation with the shipping lines and Interpol, for example. Their task would be to train the crews deter the seizure of their vessels and to help defend the ship. The expense of training, equipping and billeting ought to be less than, possibly, the added cost of insurance or ransom. Best, Raffy Alunan, (by email), Dec. 07, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Louie Fernandez of New Jersey) IT'S TIME TO MEET JUANA CHANGE.... http://www.pagasa.net.ph/PAGASA/Juana_Change.html PLEASE INFECT YOUR NETWORKS! --------------------- www.waldorfmom.wordpress.com www.panjeetapales.com www.pagasa.net.ph wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Cayo Marschner of Moraga, CA) Toyota vs. Ford A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing. Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the Rowing Team Quality First Program, with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters. The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses. The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles), so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India. Sadly, the End. P.S. Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US claiming they can't make money paying American wages. TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results: TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses. AND....... IF THIS WEREN'T SO ACCURATE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY! wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Conrado Sanchez) Thailand and the Philippines give Asian democracy a bad name THAILAND'S three-year-old political crisis continued to rage this week, as the increasingly desperate anti-government movement, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), made a last-ditch effort to provoke violence and force the army to stage another coup. It invaded Bangkok's main airport, prompting the army chief to call on the government to dissolve parliament and for the PAD itself to cease its protests. The PAD's thuggish tactics have lost it much of the support it once had among Bangkok's middle classes. Only a fraction of the promised crowd of 100,000-plus materialised this week for its "final" push to overturn the government. Pro-PAD union bosses' calls for a general strike were generally ignored. But compensating for its dwindling public support is the high-level backing the PAD apparently continues to enjoy from elements in the military and the royal palace, including Queen Sirikit, which has so far rendered it untouchable. The PAD began in late 2005 as a series of peaceful weekly rallies in a Bangkok park against the then prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. It gained traction because Mr Thaksin seemed to regard an electoral mandate as a licence to do as he pleased. Critics were menaced; conflicts of interest between Mr Thaksin's powers as prime minister and his business empire went unchecked; and he sought to pack the country's institutions with cronies. Only when his attempts to do this with the army's senior command finally exhausted rival factions' patience did he come a cropper, being removed in the coup of 2006. But the PAD has shown itself to be at least as bad. As it goes all-out to bring down the government of Mr Thaksin's allies, elected last December in a restoration of democracy, its tactics have become ever more threatening. This week its "security guards" shot at government supporters, brandished iron bars at police and hijacked buses. Arguing that ordinary Thais are too "uneducated" to vote for sensible leaders, the PAD is openly pushing for a return to the semi-democracy of the 1980s, with governments dominated by the traditional elite, the royal palace and the army. In 1997, as Thailand passed what was widely seen as its most democratic constitution, the country looked set to be a beacon of pluralism in a region that badly needed such a shining light. Now it looks like a poor advertisement for democracy. It has disappointed those hoping it would follow the upwards path of other formerly authoritarian countries, like Spain and Brazil. Instead of evolving into a stable parliamentary democracy, it is back to being a country of coups, street fights and torn-up constitutions. The Philippines is also giving democracy a bad name. The latest attempt to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, this time over a dubious telecommunications contract with a Chinese firm, is becoming another grandstanding and score-settling opportunity for politicians. It is distracting the government from dealing with the country's deep poverty, armed insurgencies and other myriad problems, just like past futile attempts to dislodge Mrs Arroyo for allegedly fiddling the 2004 elections. Last November the latest in a string of coup attempts against her ended up like a cross between the Marx Brothers and the Keystone Cops. The rebels seized a five-star hotel, vowing to fight to the bloody end. They then meekly surrendered when loyal troops drove an armoured car into the lobby, with the farcical scenes broadcast worldwide on live television. Surveying this disorder and lack of progress, the proponents of "Asian values" may be saying "We told you so." Their argument, at its height in the early 1990s, when South-East Asia was enjoying rapid economic development while remaining largely undemocratic, was that too much "Western-style" liberty would only lead to trouble, disrupting the region's rising prosperity and leaving its inhabitants worse off. Their argument was somewhat weakened by the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis, but it did not die. In Singapore's 2006 general election, a young voter put it to the country's elder statesmen and Asian-values champion, Lee Kuan Yew, that allowing greater freedom of expression would make it stronger. He retorted: "You mean to tell me that what is happening in Thailand and the Philippines is binding the people, building the nation?" This week Chris Patten, a former governor of Hong Kong, expressed fears in a BBC interview that China was offering a negative example of economic development without democracy. At least Indonesia�the most populous country in South-East Asia�is belatedly showing signs of becoming more democratic. Perhaps shocked into sensibleness by the rioting that accompanied the economic crisis of a decade ago and the accompanying collapse of the Suharto regime, its political actors mostly accept the need to stay within bounds and respect the rule of law. Malaysia, ruled by the same coalition since independence from Britain 51 years ago, may experience its first peaceful transfer of power at its next elections. Even Singapore's tiny, fragmented opposition is mainly the victim of its own disunity and failure to present a coherent alternative to Mr Lee's super-efficient People's Action Party So all is not lost yet. Returning to London this week after three years as The Economist's South-East Asia correspondent, this writer departs as convinced as ever�despite the superficial signs to the contrary�that Asians are potentially just as capable as Scandinavians at running their affairs democratically if given a chance�and, just as important, if they seize it. The main problem is too little democracy, not too much. Selfish and self-important elites of various types still dominate much of the region, from Thailand's royalists to the Philippines' landed gentry, from Malaysia's crony-capitalists to Vietnam's crony-communists. Overcoming them will require more capable, more principled and more unifying opposition figures than those the region has seen so far. Even Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy icon, stands accused of failing in the tactics department, for all her courage and charisma. There is no need to assume that liberty must be traded for prosperity; the world's richest countries are also, generally, its freest. It is a pity that, Japan apart, there are so few Asian examples on the list. The Economist, Nov. 26, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Krip Yuson) The Coming American Revolution? I was shocked that Fox would air such a segment. They mentioned that before 2012: 1. America will be the first undeveloped country 2. Revolution, food shortages, riots, marches 3. Food instead of gifts for Christmas Seriously, I was shocked. The segment lasted for more than 6 minutes. He said things like parents shouldn't send their kids to get business degrees or psychology degrees and send them to community colleges to learn a real skill. He kept implying that food will become the most important thing for us. He said the retail industry will die off completely but local markets will thrive. The host even introduced him as a guy who's "predictions always come true". Gerald Celente's website: http://www.trendsresearch... Here's a well written prediction from Celente: http://www.earthfiles.com... After Wall Street Bailout, Is Main Street Headed for Depression? � 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe "This Wall Street bailout is really taxation without representation." - Gerald Celente, Editor and Publisher, The Trends Journal October 17, 2008 Rhinebeck, New York - The American government bought $250 billion in ownership of United States banks this week of October 13th. The week before, it authorized nearly a trillion dollars to bail out Wall Street that included even saving the world's largest insurance company, A. I. G. But what about all the struggling Americans on Main Street who are watching their 401(K) savings and their pensions shrink as the Dow moves up and down 700 points a day? What about the estimated million Americans who have lost their homes to foreclosures in the sub-prime mortgage mess? Who is bailing out the Main Street taxpayers who are being used by the United States government to bail out Wall Street? And what happens to shopping malls and other retailers as the government reported this week that retail sales are down 1.2% in September 2008 - and are expected to keep falling? Virginia Cervasio, Exec. Dir., of the Lee County Suicide Resource Center in Florida told Associated Press this week: "A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They're losing their homes; they're going into foreclosure; they've lost their jobs." On October 13, 2008, Associated Press reported: "As Economy Sinks, Officials Fear Violent Solutions" - An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. - A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years. - In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family's mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: 'By the time you foreclose on my house, I'll be dead.' Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table. - In Ocala, Florida, Roland Gore shot his wife and dog in March 2008 and then set fire to the couple's home, which had been in foreclosure, before killing himself. His case was one of several in which people have killed spouses or pets, destroyed property or attacked police before taking their own lives. On October 9, 2008, Gerald Celente, publisher and editor of the highly respected Trends Journal issued a Trend Alert headlined: "Washington Bailout A Bust. Depression to Follow." This week I asked him why a Trend Alert about an economic depression when the American government seems to be doing everything it can to hold off financial collapse? Gerald Celente, Editor and Publisher, The Trends Journal, Rhinebeck, New York:"All they are doing is throwing good money after bad. This is unprecedented. This isn't the United States of America. It's now the United Soviet States of America. They are buying banks, brokerages, insurance companies. We (U. S. government) now own the world's largest insurance company! And mortgage companies. And they are doing it all with taxpayer money. So, anyone with a little common sense, Linda, could figure it out. If the boys on Wall Street botched a deal before, what makes anyone think that the inept people in Washington are going to pull it off any better? They are not. What they (government bureaucrats) have better than the scammers on Wall Street is that they (government) has unlimited funds from the U. S. Treasury by taxing the people and taking all the money they want to do their deals. So, nothing good is going to come out of this. All they are doing is bailing out the preferred shareholders, the foreign banks that have loaned the money � all on the backs of the American people. This is a 'Foetus Tax' in the sense that generations are going to have to pay for this. This will do nothing, nothing! to stop the economic depression that is coming. All it will do is bailout the 'too big to fail' companies. WHY DID THE DOLLAR GO UP DURING THE CHAOS? Gold went down, the dollar went up. The markets are so highly manipulated. There are reports coming out of banks shorting gold positions by the hundreds of thousands trying to keep gold prices down. There are reports of people lining up in Europe and other countries to buy gold and cashing out. Because when people realize that their paper is not worth the paper it's printed on and people start going into gold, the whole system could collapse immediately. So, they are doing everything they can to prop the dollar up and to push gold prices down. They are propping the dollar up also, so that the people that are in dollars that want to get out have an opportunity, such as the Chinese and all the other foreign banks that are holding so much of the dollar debt. WHO HAS THE ABILITY TO PROP UP THE U. S. DOLLAR? The central banks because remember they are in control of the printing press. So you have coordination between the world central banks and the Federal Reserve and they are trading heavily into the markets to keep it going. SO, THE CENTRAL BANKS MIGHT HAVE MORE EFFECT ON WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH THE DOW NOW THAN JUST NORMAL STOCK INVESTORS? Absolutely! The game is rigged. It's being rigged in broad daylight and we see it right in front of us. Goldman Sachs has now taken over the White House with Henry Paulson in Treasury. When they had the A. I. G. bailout, the biggest financial insurance company in the world. They just got $85 billion and just asked for another $40 billion and we taxpayers just paid for a half million dollars worth of perks for their A.I.G. Commissars to go to the resorts like they used to do in the Soviet Union. Do you know who the only person sitting in on that meeting was outside of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve? It was Blankfein from Goldman Sachs! It's criminal activity from top to bottom. WHAT DOES THAT LEAVE THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WITH IN TERMS OF ANY KIND OF POWER TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM? It leaves them with anger and when they are broke and desperate, that's when denial no longer rules. Denial, by the way, is still pretty prevalent among a lot of people. But when the reality hits and they see how bad things are, you're going to start to see tax revolts. It's going to start taking place at the local level. People can't afford these school taxes. They can't afford the property taxes. I mean it's a joke! Property taxes keep going up and they keep re-evaluating. But when the value goes down, the bureaucrats don't lower the taxes. What is going on here? People are not going to be able to afford it and that's when the tax revolt happens and that's what we are going to see. What Could 2009 America Look Like? YOU HAVE BEEN SO ACCURATE SINCE 2007 IN CALLING EXACTLY WHAT HAS UNFOLDED IN 2008. COULD YOU HELP THE GENERAL NORTH AMERICAN AUDIENCE UNDERSTAND WHAT THE TRENDS JOURNAL AND INSTITUTE WOULD SEE IN DETAIL AS WE GO FORWARD NOW FROM OCTOBER 2008 TO OCTOBER 2009? First, we have to remember there are many wild cards that are thrown on the deck that nobody can ever anticipate and that's why nobody can really predict the future. You can see the face of it, but you really never know what's going to happen (in detail). Having said that, there might be wars. Geopolitical tensions are always coming to light just as happened this past summer with Georgia invading South Ossettia and the belligerency shown by the United States on behalf of Georgia in support of their invasion. So that was the beginning of a new Cold War. How is that going to play out? We're not sure. But here's what we know, for example, about that. We know when that happened, the Russian stock market collapsed and it has not recovered since. So, the Russians are very angry at America for having instigated that war, as the Russians believe. So, we don't know all the geopolitical tensions. If things remain constant on the economic and political fronts, what we're going to see in the beginning of the New Year 2009 is a very cold winter. February and March 2009 are going to be very, very bleak. We're going to see the depression really start to set in. WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF A DEPRESSION? We don't go by unemployment numbers. They reached almost 25% in the last Depression of 1929. Now, there will be masses of working poor doing two to three jobs just to make ends meet, plus you're going to have a lot of people unemployed as well � probably in the 15% level at least. Again, the numbers are cooked all the time because what happens is that once a person is no longer looking for work and their unemployment benefits have run out, the government no longer counts them as unemployed! Again, the United Soviet States of America! Just as the bureaucrats don't include energy and food into the core inflation numbers. Mall and Retail Store Collapses This whole notion that we need a Wall Street is a fallacy because Wall Street killed Main Street by giving all the real estate developers money and special tax breaks and grants given by the cities and states to build all these huge malls and outlets that have sapped the vitality out of Main Street. That vitality is going to be re-invigorated and it's going to start now in the New Year 2009. You're going to see more vitality spring up in the dead areas because we're only talking now in the media about the financial collapses. Let's start talking about the retail collapses that are going to follow soon. You're going to see big name retailers buckle under and go under. You're going to see malls become ghost malls. Desperate People, Tent Cities, Rise in Crime It's going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we're going to see many more. We did a piece about self-storage units really taking on the true meaning of their name. People are going to start living in these things and it's going to be better than living in a tent out in the street or risking your life in a homeless shelter. We're going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It's going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It's going to come as a shock and with it, there's going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people's minds weren't wrecked on all these modern drugs � over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody's comprehension. Tax Revolts WILL THIS COUNTRY EVER CHANGE BACK TO WHAT IT WAS BEFORE THIS CORRUPT COLLAPSE? There will be a revolution in this country. It's not going to come yet, but it's going to come down the line and we're going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen. We're very confident of that because as we look through history � tracking trends is a way of understanding where we are, how we got here and where we're going. Throughout the entire 19th Century, and even into the early 20th Century, the major issue was the central banks taking over the country. That's why you had people like Andrew Jackson. It's been a major issue since our founding fathers and will continue to be. This is only a temporary take over. BUT HOW DO THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE NON-WALL STREET PEOPLE GET ENOUGH LEVERAGE TO HAVE A REVOLUTION AGAINST A CORRUPT WALL STREET AND GOVERNMENT IN TERMS OF THEIR PRIORITIES? The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That's going to be the big one because people can't afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You're going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop. From that taxation issue because that's what's going on right now � this Wall Street bailout is really taxation without representation. It worked before; it will work again. That's what we see as being the glue that brings this third party movement together because now it's not a question of becoming involved because it's a political or ideological belief. It's in your pocketbook. It's staring you in the face. People cannot make ends meet. What are they doing? They're going around begging to bailout disenfranchised Wall Street executives?!? No, you're going to start seeing the revolution and it's going to take the form of tax revolts. Main Street Renaissance? Main Street Renaissance? You're going to see a lot of changes that are going to make it better for the average person. The system right now is built on too-big-to-fails. There's not enough money in the world to save them. So, we're going to see a Renaissance as well. Something old is dying and something new is being born. DO YOU MEAN THAT THERE COULD BE SOME SORT OF REJUVENATION BECAUSE PRICES WILL BE FORCED DOWN TO SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE CAN HANDLE? The prices will be forced down, but we're going to go through a period of hyper-inflation the likes of which we have never seen before. The government is just printing money on a daily basis. They are just manufacturing it out of thin air! So, we're going to see hyper-inflation, the kind you used to see in Argentina and Brazil when they went through currency crises. The prices are going to go lower, but in real dollar terms, it's still going to cost a lot. Where the change is going to come about is that people are going to start re-thinking about what consumerism is about. That's the real dynamic change. You can't buy what you can't afford and don't need. That's going to be a wake up call. You don't borrow to build. You only build with profits. So, as that happens, we're going to see more community spirit. The small towns that made this country great in the first place are going to re-emerge. With that, family, friends, relatives � a whole different structure starts taking place rather than doing it all on your own, you don't need anybody, you can make it to the top mentality. So again, something old is dying and something new is being born. ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in acabaya.blogspot.com. To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. |
 |
 |
| ON THE OTHER HAND |