The REAL reason for the Middle East protests

It would seem the moment new "leadership" takes over a country they are bought off by the same corruption that led to the protests in the first place.

Is it free trade versus fair trade?

Capitalism and large corporations vying for their greedy "cut" leaving nothing behind to fuel the country's general population. Just as they are trying to muscle in on our middle class here in the US by propping up republican "sell out" politicians and stripping away bargaining rights. A country without unions, middle class infrastructure and other social protections would crumble into chaos. Just as we are seeing happen.

0 Replies

bookmark

0 Replies

I can't seem to get the cotton gin out of my mind. It occurred to me, had the cotton gin not been invented that corporations may have never allowed freedom to exists as it is today. In this thought I am stirred with anger and a loss of faith in humanity.

Hostile takeovers and corporate handshaking means that ideas are only allowed to take hold when being managed by the already rich. I wonder if more reform is needed on Wall Street? Has Obama gone far enough? Are there too many monopolies?

Big banks and big business wiping out the small entrepreneurs.

http://www.fullissue.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Cotton-Gin.jpg

1 Reply

@RexRed,

More reform on wall street?

Yes

Has Obama done enough?

No

Are there too many monopolies?

Yes!!!

0 Replies

A camera shop that has been in the city I live in for probably 20 years went out of business. I noticed today the store was empty and their sign was taken down. Chalk one up for Best Buy and the average consumer's lack of understanding how important supporting local business is...

Eat a Big Mac rather than treat the kids to a home style cooked meal. Food prepared on the spot rather than at some meat packing plant in some far removed place and trucked in by the boatload. Plastic prefabbed new fangled artificial goop.

Sad and disgusting really. It is not that a Big Mac is not good on occasion but not at the expense of local food entrepreneurs. A restaurant closed early today because it had no customers. Food chain mania is rather sickening... Endlessly dropping coins in a slot machine like a rat waiting for a pellet to come out.

People have become conditioned to their own demise.

I have an idea for the people in Egypt. With all of the sand there in the desert why don't they make glass containers (with no metal or plastic or rubber) for storing food in the refrigerator and try and put Tupperware out of business? I would rather store my food in glass than Tupperware. I can take it right from the fridge to the microwave and not have a melted mess with hydrocarbons and PCB's introduced into my food by the heat. Maybe not putting Tupperware "out of business" but providing an alternative.

1 Reply

@RexRed,

Thank you so very much for starting a thread about the middle east. I'm sick to death with everything to do with this topic being posted by gunga. I will contribute to this, but not now. I've just had a drink and I'm going to bed.

0 Replies

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/388314/china_censors_web_curb_inner_mongolia_protests/

Speaking of China, maybe the "emperor" should pay his own "slaves" a bit more... Life slaving in a sweat shop day after day sewing buttons gets old even to teens. Perhaps devaluing their yen was not such a good idea...

1 Reply

@RexRed,

Who is the real villain, the 'emperor' who pays his 'slaves' a pittance, or the western consumers who buy the cheap goods produced?

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

We are all complicit cause and effect. Apparently the protesters in China blame their emperor... Our capitalism is the emperor here in the US so who do we blame the people and the free enterprise?

1 Reply

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43221785/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

0 Replies

@RexRed,

RexRed wrote:

We are all complicit cause and effect. Apparently the protesters in China blame their emperor... Our capitalism is the emperor here in the US so who do we blame the people and the free enterprise?

Who is the most complicit? Trade Unions get better pay for workers, jobs get outsourced, the cheap goods that come into the country keep the remaining workers wages down. A pool of unemployed labour helps push wages down even further. Who makes the most money from foreign labour, the Chinese factory, or the Western owners of the trademark? Who owns all the newspapers TV and radio stations, rich people, or ordinary workers?

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

RexRed wrote:

We are all complicit cause and effect. Apparently the protesters in China blame their emperor... Our capitalism is the emperor here in the US so who do we blame the people and the free enterprise?

Who is the most complicit? Trade Unions get better pay for workers, jobs get outsourced, the cheap goods that come into the country keep the remaining workers wages down. A pool of unemployed labour helps push wages down even further. Who makes the most money from foreign labour, the Chinese factory, or the Western owners of the trademark? Who owns all the newspapers TV and radio stations, rich people, or ordinary workers?

If you put a blind fat kid out in left field where is the batter gonna hit the ball? Smile

1 Reply

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43226363/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

0 Replies

@RexRed,

I assume you're talking about baseball, sorry I can't always follow that analogy. For me batter is something you cover fish with before you deep fry it, and a pitcher is something you put margueritas in.

What I was trying to say is that the very rich will always have things their own way until the workers in Michigan, Beijing, Capetown, Rio and Manchester realise they've got more in common with each other and less in common with the guy that owns the local radio station. The very rich realised this a long time ago.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

I assume you're talking about baseball, sorry I can't always follow that analogy. For me batter is something you cover fish with before you deep fry it, and a pitcher is something you put margueritas in.

What I was trying to say is that the very rich will always have things their own way until the workers in Michigan, Beijing, Capetown, Rio and Manchester realise they've got more in common with each other and less in common with the guy that owns the local radio station. The very rich realised this a long time ago.

Very well said and funny about the batter and pitcher thing. hehe Smile

I think the very first thing is to isolate what exactly is the gripe? The main gripe may be different in the US than it is in the Middle East. Or maybe it is the same but cloaked under some cultural barrier. I would guess that the main gripe in the middle east is government detached from the people and corporate corruption and a lack of a middle class. Perhaps this is also the gripe in the USA.

Although I personally think for the Middle East it has also to do with freedom of expression. Islam has long suppressed the people of the Middle East with its idea that no one's head is supposed to be above anther's head while prostrating one's self to Allah.. If they protest as a collective whole then they feel justified in finally achieving self expression. While in the US self expression has reached a grotesque and decadent height.

If suppression of the middle class is what is to blame then who do we blame for this? Do we chop off the head of our government?

I believe this is the bait... The republicans would love to see us chop off the head of our government and storm the capitol all greedily seeking our piece of the pie or batter fried broccoli... If we were to blame our government and cause it any ill then the republicans would certainly get their wish for "smaller government". I believe this is exactly their plan... While big business would only swoop in and buy off our military.

No! This is not the answer... We have to KILL the lobbyist! I don't mean that literally... I mean, just walk into a supermarket and look at all the name brands... If our gripe is with big business who do we blame? The oil companies, the farmers, the grocers themselves, the millions of products? They have us hypnotized by their dazzling colorful labels and enough plastic to suffocate a million babies.

We need to get our senator's and representatives to promise that each and every one who we vote for is willing to vote to end lobbying... If they do not end this lobbying we do not vote for them. We protest and demand they collectively hold this vote after they are elected and no more err, fancy pants Dick Durbans to strike down the motion before it even reaches a vote. We hinge the entire election on this one issue...

THIS and only this will revive the middle class.... This will end these corrupt earmarks, government waste, bridges to nowhere and place the will and concerns of the people once and for all front and center in Washington.

How can the people compete with large corporations? The very architecture of our government is geared to allow the corrupt to impact the most change... We need to put our foot on the hose and stop the corporations from using our elected officials as puppets for their own greedy and un-conscientious gain.

The plants and trees don't have a voice, fish don't have a voice. They can't lobby our senators and say HELP you are hunting me to extinction! Yet the greedy corporations have the loudest voice of all.

1 Reply

Dear Eric,

On May 4, the Republican Tea Party Congress passed H.R. 3, which would coerce private insurance into ending coverage for abortion and turn IRS agents into abortion cops.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless contributed $386,000 and $35,500 respectively to members of the House Tea Party Caucus in the 2010 elections, including Tea Party leader Michelle Bachmann.

Bob Fertik

0 Replies

@RexRed,

RexRed wrote:

Although I personally think for the Middle East it has also to do with freedom of expression. Islam has long suppressed the people of the Middle East with its idea that no one's head is supposed to be above anther's head while prostrating one's self to Allah.. If they protest as a collective whole then they feel justified in finally achieving self expression. While in the US self expression has reached a grotesque and decadent height.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that Islam and democracy are incompatable. We have Moslem members of Parliament in the UK, fully committed to the democratic process. Only a tiny fraction of Moslems are Islamic Fundamentalists who want some Islamic Caliphate spreading across the Middle East and parts of Asia. And only a tiny fraction of those fundamentalists are prepared to resort to violence to carry out those aims. What has happened so far in the Middle East is that the only oppostion to brutal dictatorships has been Islamic fundamentalists. The Arab Spring is as much a rejection of Islamic fundamentalism as anything else.

On another note, I am so grateful that I don't have to worry about paying for health insurance. Slimy Dave Cameron is in a lot of trouble because he promised to keep up investment in the NHS, and his unmanifestoed (is that a word?) NHS reforms are starting to bite him on the arse. His liberal coalition partners atre spitting feathers and have promised to block anything that the Doctors don't like, which is pretty much all of it.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

RexRed wrote:

Although I personally think for the Middle East it has also to do with freedom of expression. Islam has long suppressed the people of the Middle East with its idea that no one's head is supposed to be above anther's head while prostrating one's self to Allah.. If they protest as a collective whole then they feel justified in finally achieving self expression. While in the US self expression has reached a grotesque and decadent height.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that Islam and democracy are incompatable. We have Moslem members of Parliament in the UK, fully committed to the democratic process. Only a tiny fraction of Moslems are Islamic Fundamentalists who want some Islamic Caliphate spreading across the Middle East and parts of Asia. And only a tiny fraction of those fundamentalists are prepared to resort to violence to carry out those aims. What has happened so far in the Middle East is that the only oppostion to brutal dictatorships has been Islamic fundamentalists. The Arab Spring is as much a rejection of Islamic fundamentalism as anything else.

On another note, I am so grateful that I don't have to worry about paying for health insurance. Slimy Dave Cameron is in a lot of trouble because he promised to keep up investment in the NHS, and his unmanifestoed (is that a word?) NHS reforms are starting to bite him on the arse. His liberal coalition partners atre spitting feathers and have promised to block anything that the Doctors don't like, which is pretty much all of it.

We will see how compatible democracy is to liberty when Muslims vote in sharia law... Democracy without liberty is slavery.

1 Reply

@RexRed,

Sharia law is a misnomer. From what I've read the Koran is not a legal framework. A group of Islamic scholars set up the first legal framework called sharia law, but they stressed it was for that time only. That all subsequent generations should revisit it and write their own versions. This was never done. Indonesia is the most populous Islamic country, which is reasonably democratic. There is no Sharia law there. Certain institutions have a vested interest in portraying all muslims as fundamentalist zealots.

You are right in saying we need to wait and see what happens in the rest of the Islamic world.

1 Reply

The REAL reason for the Middle East protests

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know