The Green Green Gold of Ethiopia by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London
March 7, 2013

Indian multi-nationals in clover

Ancestral land that for generations has served as home and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in Ethiopia is being leased out, on 99-year renewable contracts at nominal sums to foreign corporations. The land giveaway or agrarian reforms as the government would prefer to present them began in 2008 when the Ethiopian government, under the brutal suppressive Premiership of Meles Zenawi invited foreign countries/corporation to take up highly attractive deals and turn large areas of land over to industrial farming for the export of crops.

India: Growing Inequality and Destructive Development by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
London
February 15, 2013

Image by dietmut via Flickr

Upon a foundation of deep spirituality and philosophical treasures, proclaiming unity, justice and service, New India, horns honking in violation of the good; is racing, no time to spare towards the Alter of Materiality and Market Fundamentalism.

Under the careful guidance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the Indian government has for the last twenty years or so, (during which time the BBC 7/12/11[i] found “inequality has doubled”), embraced market liberalization and the global market; garlanded corporations with all manner of subsidies and damned the poor to greater poverty, destitution, suffering and, suicide in the case of farmers:

Surviving Progress (2011)

Image by shchukin via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Film no longer available.

Aug 24, 2012 by youloopaccount

Film about the risks we pose to our own survival in the name of progress; connecting financial collapse, growing inequality and global oligarchy with the sustainability of mankind.

Chandra Muzaffar: Containing China, Syria, BRICS and more

Dandelion Salad

Jun 17, 2012 by GlobalResearchTV

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President of the International Movement for a Just World analyses a wide variety of issues including the emerging BRICS nations, the crisis in Syria, and the implications of Washington’s policy shift to the Asia-Pacific region.

Michael Hudson: Debt-ridden Countries IMF’d as “Euro Collapse” threat lures Bailout Bucks

with Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
April 18, 2012

Apr 18, 2012 by CapitalAccount

Welcome to Capital Account. European banks are under pressure to raise capital and the Euro could collapse triggering panic in financial markets and another great depression. These are all warnings coming out of the international monetary fund. Central banks haven’t been waiting — they appear to be moving away from the euro by buying more gold. We’ll talk about it. And while we are on the topic of the IMF as policymakers descend upon Washington for the Spring meeting — it seems all about raising money to boost the IMF’s fire power aimed at putting out Europe’s debt crisis. But

Greece: From Despair to Resistance by Panagiotis Sotiris

Dandelion Salad

Crossposted with permission from www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/

by Panagiotis Sotiris
Socialist Project | The Bullet
February 14, 2012

Image by mkhalili via Flickr

On Sunday 12 February 2012 the people of Greece, in demonstrations and street fights all over the country expressed in a massive, collective and heroic way their anger against the terms of the new loan agreement dictated by the EU-ECB-IMF ‘troika’ (Eurpoean Union, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund). Workers, youth, students filled the streets with rage, defying the extreme aggression by police forces, setting another example of struggle and solidarity.

Hunger Is a ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’, says Jean Ziegler by Siv O’Neall

by Siv O’Neall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Axisoflogic.com
Lyon, France
Jan. 19, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

“Every five seconds, a child under 10 dies of hunger.  – Thirty-five million people die each year from hunger or its immediate aftermath. – One billion people are permanently and severely malnourished and the situation is becoming increasingly catastrophic.” (Jean Ziegler)

In his latest book Mass Destruction – the Geopolitics of Hunger, Jean Ziegler[1] talks about the current state of the world and the neoliberal politics of starvation of the poor, which has led to a crisis situation amounting to calculated murder. What we are witnessing today is the worst hunger crisis in human history is. And it is all because of human greed, colossal mismanagement for profit.

From State Debt to State Money by Rudo de Ruijter

By Rudo de Ruijter
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Independent researcher
www.courtfool.info
Netherlands
Nov. 28, 2011

Brussels wants the keys to the national treasuries of the 17 Euro-countries. Only this way can they save the Euro, they say. The ESM-treaty has already been signed. If the national parliamentarians ratify it, it will be the end of our sovereign democracies. Do we want that? Is there an alternative?

For those who know how the money system works, the logical solution to today’s problems are fairly simple. A bank reform. On TV, at least in the Netherlands, the subject is still taboo [1], but if you want to know how it works, you can find an explanation here. (And if you already know all this, you can scroll immediately to 2. bank reform.)

Iceland’s Fair Value Vultures by Olafur Arnarson, Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
Nov. 12, 2011

The New Bank Disaster
Olafur Arnarson, Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson*

Image by poptech via Flickr

The problem of bank loans gone bad, especially those with government-guarantees such as U.S. student loans and Fannie Mae mortgages, has thrown into question just what should be a “fair value” for these debt obligations. Should “fair value” reflect what debtors can pay – that is, pay without going bankrupt? Or is it fair for banks and even vulture funds to get whatever they can squeeze out of debtors?

Max Keiser: Greece run by financial terrorists + Satyajit Das: Global economic chaos + James Howard Kunstler: The Political Awakening

Dandelion Salad

Image by Chris Wieland via Flickr

MaxKeiserTV on Nov 2, 2011

Global stock markets have plunged over Greece’s shock announcement that it would hold a referendum on an EU bailout deal.

The decision has raised fears that a rejection of the unpopular EU agreement will renew risks of a Greek default and might even force the country to leave the eurozone.

Michael Hudson: Debt Deflation in Europe and America + Euro SOS

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by Resident on Earth via Flickr

with Prof. Michael Hudson
Bonnie Faulkner
Guns and Butter
September 14, 2011

European banking crisis causing a constitutional crisis of the European Central Bank; Germany; the myth of Social Security in the US.; bank balance sheet crisis; food, fuel and climate crisis; the super congress; debt deflation; FHA lawsuit against the banks; criminalization the financial sector; Modern Monetary Theory; the coming lost decade; debt cancellation.

The People vs. The Machine by Cindy Sheehan + Gloria Steinem leads the fight to save Jeju Island

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
August 6, 2011

Image by leighadactyl via Flickr

Since the summer of 2005, when I began a camp in front of the vacation “ranch” of George Bush, I have traveled to many countries and all over the U.S. meeting with people who have been in long struggles against neoliberalism. Most of us in the U.S. are familiar with the term “neoconservative,” but “neoliberal” is also a well-understood and often used term in other areas.

Covering the Somali famine- of news By William Bowles

by William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
crossposted on Strategic Culture Foundation
4 August, 2011

Image by frankkeillor via Flickr

Over the past days BBC news coverage of the famine in Somalia has been saturating the airwaves and it’s always like this whenever ‘natural disasters’ strike. Fundamentally it’s little more than a fund-raising promo paid for with our taxes as endlessly repeated shots of emaciated babies and dying people serves no informative purpose except to tug covetously at our purse strings. And of course it has the added benefit of distracting us from our own condition – until the next crisis comes our way.

John Pilger: War by Other Means (1992)

Dandelion Salad

Aug 24, 2012 by sevenearths2010

Image by Resident on Earth via Flickr

John Pilger and David Munro examine the policy of First World banks agreeing [to] loans with Third World countries, who are then unable to meet the cripling interest charges. Won Geneva International TV Award at the North-South Media Encounters event, Geneva, 1993; Gold Medal in the ‘Best Documentary Production category’ of the International Television Movie Festival, Mount Freedom, New Jersey 1993;

Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World by Michael Parenti (2007)

by Michael Parenti
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.michaelparenti.org
July 31, 2011

Originally published and crossposted from www.commondreams.org
February 16, 2007

Image by CIFOR via Flickr

There is a “mystery” we must explain: How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world’s population. What do we make of this?