machete | the blog

At yesterday’s OPEN DC event Shaukat Aziz (former PM and FM of Pakistan) answered an audience question by talking about how IMF funding causes nations to give up economic sovereignty - this was a great point, and a very timely one given today’s economic ‘crisis.’  Aid from international financial institutions comes with rules, and currently, those rules are largely based on the ‘Washington Consensus‘ guidelines for economic growth.  Unfortunately, as economist Dani Rodrik presented in his recent book (’One Economics, Many Recipes’), these western-built guidelines for growth may be obsolete, and at best, can use a few edits.

Some nations have received so much aid from international financial institutions that their debts have had to be pardoned…more than $40 billion in foreign debt was totally written off in 2005 for 18 nations (14 of them African).  When countries are spending most of their money on repaying debts - and forgoing critical domestic improvements - they’re terminally screwed.  It’s called foreign ‘aid’ - loans granted to spur growth by organizations like the World Bank and African Development Bank - but aid turns into a burden as it instantly becomes debt.  This is where the head scratching starts… Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read this on Wooster Collective.

A few weeks ago we posted a call for artists to assist in a massive mural in Washington DC, sponsored by the fantastic nonprofit group Albus Cavus. The final wall is absolutely stunning.

But to show how ignorant some people can be, we heard today that the local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Marshall Phillips is now protesting the mural because, according to him, for it to be acceptable it needs to include references to MLK, the Redskins football team, and the Nationals baseball team.

Here’s the video and my commentary:
Read the rest of this entry »

A joyful baptism celebration at a Hispanic household in Woodbridge, VA was abruptly interrupted by police who reportedly barged in requesting immigration documentation from the homeowner - the night ended with the tasing (shock with taser gun) of two adults and their subsequent arrest. Relatives of the man and woman that were arrested claim to have caught this all on video. The incident occurred on July 25, 2009.

This story is still very much in development, I heard it on the way to work this morning while listening to the local Spanish-language radio station, El Zol. Relatives of the man and woman who were arrested came on the morning radio show to tell their story. Read the rest of this entry »

Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, publicly stated (June 19) his disapproval of the burqa/niqab,  stating that it is not welcome in France and renders women “prisoners behind a screen.“  His statements have set the stage for a possible nationwide ban - this ban would obviously apply to everyone in France…but reasonably speaking, it only targets the Muslim population, which makes up between 5-10% of the total population (64 million).

So how many women actually wear a burqa / niqab in France?
There’s no official number, but estimates are in the hundreds - which means it cannot be more than 1,000 women.

Why ban the burqa / niqab?
The case for banning the burqa is primarily based on two points.

1. Wearing the burqa in public violates France’s intense adhesion to laïcité, or secularism.
   
2. It is an oppressive article of clothing.

Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the strike about?
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union that represents about 45,000 employees at Chrysler has once again threatened to strike, this time they mean business. The strike is set to occur at 11:00am EST today if the UAW and Chrysler do not come to an agreement on health care issues. The central issue: the proposed union-run retiree health care trust. The UAW’s confidence is high after sealing a contract with GM last month that addressed the same issues.

Employees will hurt before Chrysler’s financial burden begins.
The employees at GM “are angry and they’re scared,” in the words of Paul Thayer, a welder repairman at Chrysler’s stamping plant. Anyone would be weary of striking if they lived in Michigan - it ranks 51st with the worst unemployment rate in the nation at 7.4%. Perhaps they can afford to strike for a week…but what about two weeks…or worse, what about a month? Chrysler can use some down time anyway, they’ve already shut down half of their plants because they have too much inventory - they have three months worth of inventory and their number one selling ‘Jeep Wrangler’ is assembled at a non-UAW plant in Ohio.

Michigan: The Worst state for a strike
The UAW will pay striking employees $200 per week. I can’t speak for every employee…but a lot of people I know have ZERO saved up for a rainy day. If the UAW forces its workers to strike for a long time - we can expect to see some of those workers go back to work…being a ‘scab‘ is better than being broke and homeless. Michigan’s economy is in horrible shape. It was the only state whose GDP actually fell, its poverty level is higher than the national average, its the worst state for foreclosures, and the list goes on.

As expected, Loudoun County’s board of supervisors has passed measures aimed at clamping down on illegal immigration. Following suit with neighbor Prince William County, each jurisdiction’s new laws bear much similarity, and it’s only a matter of time before additional neighboring counties follow suit. Read today’s Washington Post article on the topic.

The county’s decision to pursue appear impulsive and have created a sort of sugar-coated state of emergency in the entire Northern Virginia area that surrounds the D.C. Metro area. Whether the desperate measures are as superfluous as they seem is subjective, at least at this early stage. Read the rest of this entry »

As an eight year resident of Prince William county in Virginia I have witnessed the huge influx of Hispanic residents, estimated to have increased from 9.7% of the population in 2000 to 18% in 2005 - it has to be higher this year (WTOP News, July 2007).

This influx of Latino people, mainly from Central American countries, has created a sort of hysteria amongst Prince William’s largely conservative voting base. The ‘migrant workers’ gathered at 7-11 convenience stores (waiting for work), the boom of Hispanic shopping centers (food & ‘back-home’ goods), and not to mention the neighbors next door - since Hispanic homeownership has risen 2.2% from 2000 to 2005 in the United States.

The polemic here is that a large amount of Hispanic immigrants to Prince William are illegal - this is putting a large socio-economic strain on the county’s infrastructure. The new county law, passed yesterday, is aimed towards getting those illegal immigrants deported. The method: demand proof of lawful presence from any individual that can be detained on probable cause of violation of federal immigration laws. (Washington Times, July 2007) Read the rest of this entry »