Oh no you didn’t

“The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.

The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.

In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.

Details of the shipments have emerged in a memorandum prepared for the meeting of the House committee on oversight and government reform which is examining Iraqi reconstruction. Its chairman, Henry Waxman, a fierce critic of the war, said the way the cash had been handled was mind-boggling. “The numbers are so large that it doesn’t seem possible that they’re true. Who in their right mind would send 363 tonnes of cash into a war zone?”

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Jeff Jarvis from CUNY

“The revolution will not be televised. It will be YouTubed.”

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immanence

From GU

“Anyone ready for a vegetable Spinoza?

In the West, the clash of civilisations is not between Islam and Christianity, but two other powerful faiths: environmentalism and materialism. Observe the reverence of worshippers at a Ferrari showroom and a farmers’ market. A Testarossa or an organic carrot? Both are so eulogised by these rival flocks they could be the Second Coming. ‘Greed is good’ proved a slogan too powerful for that lesser faith, socialism. Now materialism faces a fresh challenge from a creed with a new motto: ‘Green is good’.

Environmentalism is a faith, its converts as fervent as those flocking to Islam. The West might have shaken off God, but not the desire to revere: the planet. Don’t believe me? Read Baruch Spinoza. He lived in 17th-century Amsterdam, but is rapidly becoming philosopher a la mode. He even dabbled in kabbalah: how modish is that?

He believed the world is God. So to pray is to worship every hill and valley, every raindrop and sunray, every man and animal – and every law connecting them. It was known as pantheism, but could be called environmentalism. Without Spinoza, would we ever have heard of James Lovelock and Gaia?

Since Descartes, humanity has felt itself separate from a dead, physical world that is ours to play with. Spinoza, by contrast, says we are part of the same, sacred earth. What makes us special? According to Spinoza, nowt. Which is very green. Unlike Prince Charles, Spinoza was a frugal ecologist.

What we call greed, Spinoza called ‘human bondage’. He distrusted desire and progress. But he was a democrat who wanted the clergy out of politics. Many greens will also identify with his years of ostracism: aged 23, he was excommunicated by his synagogue for ‘abominable heresies’. His great works were published after his death, found hidden in his desk. He is interesting as more than an historical curiosity, however.

He wrote: ‘Like waves on the sea, driven by contrary winds, we toss about, not knowing our fate.’ A pretty good take on life with rising sea levels. He also felt nature is determined to ‘produce an effect in a certain way’. If only Bush had read that before commissioning dodgy reports suggesting climate change is mere chance.

But Spinoza would also ask tough questions of greens: is yours a faith in the planet or merely a lifestyle choice?

So will Spinoza triumph? Capitalism always adapts, hence all the products pushed as ‘green’. Spinoza would choose the carrot over the Ferrari. Will we?”

changing sides

Fukuyama says. “When I wrote The End of History, I did not anticipate the degree to which mistakes on the part of American leaders, in their own stewardship of American power, could create such problems and undermine the legitimacy of the broader project. I don’t think these are mistakes we’ll never recover from … but there’s no question that because of decisions in Washington, the situation has become much worse than it would have been.”

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Hair news

i think this is how you take back power from the media coporations. set your own agenda

banksy

Stop the carnival

“People develop a country, not industrial plants, overhead railways or palaces. And Trinidad and Tobago’s people are beginning to understand that they have been let down by every post-independence government. Their political parties are discredited or untested. I keep wondering, where will they turn now?”

jeremy taylor: Stop the carnival

Tobago, 1st Jan 2007

Cheesy perhaps, but true for me today

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson
about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two
’wolves’ inside us all”.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow,
regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment,
inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and
faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his
grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The grandfather replies: “The one you feed”.

Arundhati Roy in 2003

“the disparity between the rich and poor grows, the fight to corner resources is intensifying. To push through their ’sweetheart deals,’ to corporatize the crops we grow, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the dreams we dream, coporate globalisation needs an international confederation of loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies.

Coporate Globalisation – or shall we call it by its name? Imperialism – needs a press that pretends to be free. it needs courts that pretend to dispense justice.

Meanwhile, the countries of the North harden their corders and stockpile weapons of mass destruction. After all they have to make sure that it’s only money, goods, patents and services that are globalised. Not the free movement of people. Not a respect for human rights. Not international treaties on racial discrimination or chemical and nuclear weapons or greenhouse gas emissions or climate change, or – God forbid – justice. So this, all this, is ‘empire.’ this loyal confederation, this obscene acumulation of power, this greatly increased distance between those who make the decisions and those who have to suffer them.”