From: Mike Nickerson <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Reading the Argentina IMF riots...
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 09:15:00 -0800
From: Caspar Davis <•••@••.•••>
Subject: [NS2] Reading the Argentina IMF riots... X-Sender: prana4@shawmail
To: Friends and Colleagues: ;
Thanks to Hendrik for this reminder:
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 11:30:34 +0900
From: Hendrik
To: •••@••.•••
Dear friends,
ex World Bank's Joseph Stieglitz explained how riots are part of the
program when the IMF "helps" a country by slowly killing it with debt - he
therefore called them "IMF riots". Riots are desirable, in the IMF plan,
because they legitimise the police and military action and the restrictions
of rights imposed on the population, that lead to beneficial conditions for
big banks and businesses to take over, at bargain prices, the assets of the
country that has been "helped".
Here are excerpts of an article in today's New York Times - and, as ususal,
the question that should have been asked, namely, "how exactly did
Argentina become 'a pale shadow of the confident nation whose economy grew
by half in the 1990s'?", has not been asked - probably because the answer
is obviously uncomfortable: Argentina was "helped" by the IMF.
* * *
I have been pointing out for years that we are embroiled in a war, waged
upon us by the unelected, unaccountable soldiers of Mammon, and judging by
what i read in the mainstream press (on the internet) it appears that most
people still "don't get it". September 11, 2001, in New York, to name just
one single day as reference, evokes memories of September 11, 1973, in
Santiago de Chile, or of September 11, 1990, when George W. Bush heralded
war against Iraq before the US Congress. And any other date will bring up
similar memories or unsavouryness.
So... when *will* we get it?
And, dear friends, in case you think Word Federalists are on safer ground:
i am afraid there is neither provision nor tolerance for democratic
federalism in the world order of Mammon.
In my next post i will explain why i am optimistic about the future.
Regards: Hendrik
-- excerpts from NYT article: --
December 19, 2001
Riots and Looting in Argentina as Austerity Plans Bite
By REUTERS
Filed at 7:14 p.m. ET
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina's embattled government
declared a state of siege on Wednesday to control the worst civil unrest in
more than a decade as at least four people died in widespread looting and
rioting triggered by austerity measures and rising poverty.
[...]
Police in riot gear guarded shops stocked for Christmas as troubles mounted
for President Fernando de la Rua, struggling against a four-year recession,
18.3 percent unemployment and the biggest debt default ever.
As impatience with De la Rua grew, protesters threw eggs and a paving stone
at him and business leaders vented anger at what they saw as his lack of
leadership. The opposition in Congress challenged his authority by
repealing emergency economic measures, and some politicians openly called
for his resignation.
Amid a worsening recession, the government has cut state pay and pensions
by 13 percent and slapped restrictions on cash withdrawals to end a run on
banks. Some 2,000 people a day in Argentina, which once prided itself on
the biggest middle class in Latin America, fall below the poverty line.
In muggy summer heat, hundreds of frustrated Argentines, from unemployed
single mothers to political militants, broke into stores and smashed shop
windows, stealing items including food, clothing, toilet paper and
televisions.
[...]
``I feel bad about it but we're dying of hunger,'' said Sonia Aristici,
carrying food from a supermarket in Buenos Aires.
The center-left De la Rua, rock bottom with single digits in public opinion
polls midway into his four-year term, ordered $7 million in food aid to be
distributed to calm the unrest. He spoke at a military ceremony but made no
reference to riots.
[...]
In Cordoba, the country's second-largest city, police fired rubber bullets
at municipal workers protesting unpaid wages.
[...]
Argentina is a pale shadow of the confident nation whose economy grew by
half in the 1990s. Protests, marches and generally peaceful roadblocks have
become regular events over the last year in Argentina. The protests
intensified when cash withdrawals were restricted.
Most economists see Argentina heading for a catastrophic debt default and
the eventual end of a decade-old one-to-one currency peg between the peso
and the U.S. dollar -- a rupture that would bankrupt thousands.
The lower house of Congress voted on Wednesday to repeal some of the
banking capital controls imposed earlier this month to give depositors full
access to their salaries. They also repealed special powers used by Economy
Minister Domingo Cavallo, who is under pressure to resign.
The budget's approval is vital for unlocking International Monetary Fund
aid and preventing Argentina from defaulting. But the government faces a
struggle to pass spending cuts in a Congress dominated by the opposition
Peronists.
-- end of excerpts --
<snip>
"You can eliminate people but you cannot eliminate human thought. The way
to defeat terrorism in the long run is through thought, argument and
reasoning. Once you commit violence it is unpredictable and it causes side
effects." -the Dalai Lama
"Socialism collapsed because it did not allow
prices to tell the economic truth.
Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow
prices to tell the ecological truth."
Oystein Dahle,
former Exxon vice president for
Norway and the North Sea
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