De-Dollarization: Dismantling America's Financial-Military EmpireThe Yekaterinburg Turning Point
By Prof. Michael Hudson URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13969 Global Research, June 13, 2009 The city of Yakaterinburg, Russia's largest east of the Urals, may become known not only as the death place of the tsars but of American hegemony too – and not only where US U-2 pilot Gary Powers was shot down in 1960, but where the US-centered international financial order was brought to ground.
Challenging America will be the prime focus of extended meetings in Yekaterinburg, Russia (formerly Sverdlovsk) today and tomorrow (June 15-16) for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The alliance is comprised of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrghyzstan and Uzbekistan, with observer status for Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia. It will be joined on Tuesday by Brazil for trade discussions among the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
The attendees have assured American diplomats that dismantling the US financial and military empire is not their aim. They simply want to discuss mutual aid – but in a way that has no role for the United States, NATO or the US dollar as a vehicle for trade. US diplomats may well ask what this really means, if not a move to make US hegemony obsolete. That is what a multipolar world means, after all. For starters, in 2005 the SCO asked Washington to set a timeline to withdraw from its military bases in Central Asia. Two years later the SCO countries formally aligned themselves with the former CIS republics belonging to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), established in 2002 as a counterweight to NATO.
Yet the meeting has elicited only a collective yawn from the US and even European press despite its agenda is to replace the global dollar standard with a new financial and military defense system. A Council on Foreign Relations spokesman has said he hardly can imagine that Russia and China can overcome their geopolitical rivalry,1 suggesting that America can use the divide-and-conquer that Britain used so deftly for many centuries in fragmenting foreign opposition to its own empire. But George W. Bush (“I'm a uniter, not a divider”) built on the Clinton administration's legacy in driving Russia, China and their neighbors to find a common ground when it comes to finding an alternative to the dollar and hence to the US ability to run balance-of-payments deficits ad infinitum.
What may prove to be the last rites of American hegemony began already in April at the G-20 conference, and became even more explicit at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 5, when Mr. Medvedev called for China, Russia and India to “build an increasingly multipolar world order.” What this means in plain English is: We have reached our limit in subsidizing the United States' military encirclement of Eurasia while also allowing the US to appropriate our exports, companies, stocks and real estate in exchange for paper money of questionable worth.
"The artificially maintained unipolar system,” Mr. Medvedev spelled out, is based on “one big centre of consumption, financed by a growing deficit, and thus growing debts, one formerly strong reserve currency, and one dominant system of assessing assets and risks.”2 At the root of the global financial crisis, he concluded, is that the United States makes too little and spends too much. Especially upsetting is its military spending, such as the stepped-up US military aid to Georgia announced just last week, the NATO missile shield in Eastern Europe and the US buildup in the oil-rich Middle East and Central Asia.
The sticking point with all these countries is the US ability to print unlimited amounts of dollars. Overspending by US consumers on imports in excess of exports, US buy-outs of foreign companies and real estate, and the dollars that the Pentagon spends abroad all end up in foreign central banks. These agencies then face a hard choice: either to recycle these dollars back to the United States by purchasing US Treasury bills, or to let the “free market” force up their currency relative to the dollar – thereby pricing their exports out of world markets and hence creating domestic unemployment and business insolvency.
When China and other countries recycle their dollar inflows by buying US Treasury bills to “invest” in the United States, this buildup is not really voluntary. It does not reflect faith in the U.S. economy enriching foreign central banks for their savings, or any calculated investment preference, but simply a lack of alternatives. “Free markets” US-style hook countries into a system that forces them to accept dollars without limit. Now they want out. This means creating a new alternative. Rather than making merely “cosmetic changes as some countries and perhaps the international financial organisations themselves might want,” Mr. Medvedev ended his St. Petersburg speech, “what we need are financial institutions of a completely new type, where particular political issues and motives, and particular countries will not dominate.”
When foreign military spending forced the US balance of payments into deficit and drove the United States off gold in 1971, central banks were left without the traditional asset used to settle payments imbalances. The alternative by default was to invest their subsequent payments inflows in US Treasury bonds, as if these still were “as good as gold.” Central banks now hold $4 trillion of these bonds in their international reserves – land these loans have financed most of the US Government's domestic budget deficits for over three decades now! Given the fact that about half of US Government discretionary spending is for military operations – including more than 750 foreign military bases and increasingly expensive operations in the oil-producing and transporting countries – the international financial system is organized in a way that finances the Pentagon, along with US buyouts of foreign assets expected to yield much more than the Treasury bonds that foreign central banks hold.
The main political issue confronting the world's central banks is therefore how to avoid adding yet more dollars to their reserves and thereby financing yet further US deficit spending – including military spending on their borders?
For starters, the six SCO countries and BRIC countries intend to trade in their own currencies so as to get the benefit of mutual credit that the United States until now has monopolized for itself. Toward this end, China has struck bilateral deals with Argentina and Brazil to denominate their trade in renminbi rather than the dollar, sterling or euros,3 and two weeks ago China reached an agreement with Malaysia to denominate trade between the two countries in renminbi.[4] Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad explained to me in January that as a Muslim country, Malaysia wants to avoid doing anything that would facilitate US military action against Islamic countries, including Palestine. The nation has too many dollar assets as it is, his colleagues explained. Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan of the People's Bank of China wrote an official statement on its website that the goal is now to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations.”5 This is the aim of the discussions in Yekaterinburg. In addition to avoiding financing the US buyout of their own industry and the US military encirclement of the globe, China, Russia and other countries no doubt would like to get the same kind of free ride that America has been getting. As matters stand, they see the United States as a lawless nation, financially as well as militarily. How else to characterize a nation that holds out a set of laws for others – on war, debt repayment and treatment of prisoners – but ignores them itself? The United States is now the world's largest debtor yet has avoided the pain of “structural adjustments” imposed on other debtor economies. US interest-rate and tax reductions in the face of exploding trade and budget deficits are seen as the height of hypocrisy in view of the austerity programs that Washington forces on other countries via the IMF and other Washington vehicles.
The United States tells debtor economies to sell off their public utilities and natural resources, raise their interest rates and increase taxes while gutting their social safety nets to squeeze out money to pay creditors. And at home, Congress blocked China's CNOOK from buying Unocal on grounds of national security, much as it blocked Dubai from buying US ports and other sovereign wealth funds from buying into key infrastructure. Foreigners are invited to emulate the Japanese purchase of white elephant trophies such as Rockefeller Center, on which investors quickly lost a billion dollars and ended up walking away.
In this respect the US has not really given China and other payments-surplus nations much alternative but to find a way to avoid further dollar buildups. To date, China's attempts to diversify its dollar holdings beyond Treasury bonds have not proved very successful. For starters, Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs steered its central bank into higher-yielding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities, explaining that these were de facto public obligations. They collapsed in 2008, but at least the US Government took these two mortgage-lending agencies over, formally adding their $5.2 trillion in obligations onto the national debt. In fact, it was largely foreign official investment that prompted the bailout. Imposing a loss for foreign official agencies would have broken the Treasury-bill standard then and there, not only by utterly destroying US credibility but because there simply are too few Government bonds to absorb the dollars being flooded into the world economy by the soaring US balance-of-payments deficits.
Seeking more of an equity position to protect the value of their dollar holdings as the Federal Reserve's credit bubble drove interest rates down China's sovereign wealth funds sought to diversify in late 2007. China bought stakes in the well-connected Blackstone equity fund and Morgan Stanley on Wall Street, Barclays in Britain South Africa's Standard Bank (once affiliated with Chase Manhattan back in the apartheid 1960s) and in the soon-to-collapse Belgian financial conglomerate Fortis. But the US financial sector was collapsing under the weight of its debt pyramiding, and prices for shares plunged for banks and investment firms across the globe. Foreigners see the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization as Washington surrogates in a financial system backed by American military bases and aircraft carriers encircling the globe. But this military domination is a vestige of an American empire no longer able to rule by economic strength. US military power is muscle-bound, based more on atomic weaponry and long-distance air strikes than on ground operations, which have become too politically unpopular to mount on any large scale.
On the economic front there is no foreseeable way in which the United States can work off the $4 trillion it owes foreign governments, their central banks and the sovereign wealth funds set up to dispose of the global dollar glut. America has become a deadbeat – and indeed, a militarily aggressive one as it seeks to hold onto the unique power it once earned by economic means. The problem is how to constrain its behavior. Yu Yongding, a former Chinese central bank advisor now with China's Academy of Sciences, suggested that US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner be advised that the United States should “save” first and foremost by cutting back its military budget. “U.S. tax revenue is not likely to increase in the short term because of low economic growth, inflexible expenditures and the cost of ‘fighting two wars.'”6
At present it is foreign savings, not those of Americans that are financing the US budget deficit by buying most Treasury bonds. The effect is taxation without representation for foreign voters as to how the US Government uses their forced savings. It therefore is necessary for financial diplomats to broaden the scope of their policy-making beyond the private-sector marketplace. Exchange rates are determined by many factors besides “consumers wielding credit cards,” the usual euphemism that the US media cite for America's balance-of-payments deficit. Since the 13th century, war has been a dominating factor in the balance of payments of leading nations – and of their national debts. Government bond financing consists mainly of war debts, as normal peacetime budgets tend to be balanced. This links the war budget directly to the balance of payments and exchange rates.
Foreign nations see themselves stuck with unpayable IOUs – under conditions where, if they move to stop the US free lunch, the dollar will plunge and their dollar holdings will fall in value relative to their own domestic currencies and other currencies. If China's currency rises by 10% against the dollar, its central bank will show the equivalent of a $200 million loss on its $2 trillion of dollar holdings as denominated in yuan. This explains why, when bond ratings agencies talk of the US Treasury securities losing their AAA rating, they don't mean that the government cannot simply print the paper dollars to “make good” on these bonds. They mean that dollars will depreciate in international value. And that is just what is now occurring. When Mr. Geithner put on his serious face and told an audience at Peking University in early June that he believed in a “strong dollar” and China's US investments therefore were safe and sound, he was greeted with derisive laughter.7
Anticipation of a rise in China's exchange rate provides an incentive for speculators to seek to borrow in dollars to buy renminbi and benefit from the appreciation. For China, the problem is that this speculative inflow would become a self-fulfilling prophecy by forcing up its currency. So the problem of international reserves is inherently linked to that of capital controls. Why should China see its profitable companies sold for yet more freely-created US dollars, which the central bank must use to buy low-yielding US Treasury bills or lose yet further money on Wall Street?
To avoid this quandary it is necessary to reverse the philosophy of open capital markets that the world has held ever since Bretton Woods in 1944. On the occasion of Mr. Geithner's visit to China, “Zhou Xiaochuan, minister of the Peoples Bank of China, the country's central bank, said pointedly that this was the first time since the semiannual talks began in 2006 that China needed to learn from American mistakes as well as its successes” when it came to deregulating capital markets and dismantling controls.8
An era therefore is coming to an end. In the face of continued US overspending, de-dollarization threatens to force countries to return to the kind of dual exchange rates common between World Wars I and II: one exchange rate for commodity trade, another for capital movements and investments, at least from dollar-area economies.
Even without capital controls, the nations meeting at Yekaterinburg are taking steps to avoid being the unwilling recipients of yet more dollars. Seeing that US global hegemony cannot continue without spending power that they themselves supply, governments are attempting to hasten what Chalmers Johnson has called “the sorrows of empire” in his book by that name – the bankruptcy of the US financial-military world order. If China, Russia and their non-aligned allies have their way, the United States will no longer live off the savings of others (in the form of its own recycled dollars) nor have the money for unlimited military expenditures and adventures.
US officials wanted to attend the Yekaterinburg meeting as observers. They were told No. It is a word that Americans will hear much more in the future.
Notes 1 Andrew Scheineson, “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” Council on Foreign Relations,
Updated: March 24, 2009: “While some experts say the organization has emerged as a powerful anti-U.S. bulwark in Central Asia, others believe frictions between its two largest members, Russia and China, effectively preclude a strong, unified SCO.”
2 Kremlin.ru, June 5, 2009, in Johnson's Russia List, June 8, 2009, #8.
3 Jamil Anderlini and Javier Blas, “China reveals big rise in gold reserves,” Financial Times, April 24, 2009. See also “Chinese political advisors propose making yuan an int'l currency.” Beijing, March 7, 2009 (Xinhua). “The key to financial reform is to make the yuan an international currency, said [Peter Kwong Ching] Woo [chairman of the Hong Kong-based Wharf (Holdings) Limited] in a speech to the Second Session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body. That means using the Chinese currency to settle international trade payments ...”
4Shai Oster, “Malaysia, China Consider Ending Trade in Dollars,” Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2009.
5 Jonathan Wheatley, “Brazil and China in plan to axe dollar,” Financial Times, May 19, 2009.
7 Kathrin Hille, “Lesson in friendship draws blushes,” Financial Times, June 2, 2009.
8 Steven R. Weisman, “U.S. Tells China Subprime Woes Are No Reason to Keep Markets Closed,” The New York Times, June 18, 2008.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article.
The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com
www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.
Joby Warrick - Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A U.S. document containing sensitive details about hundreds of civilian nuclear sites across the country was posted online Monday, an apparently inadvertent security breach that had federal officials scrambling yesterday to remedy the mistake.
The document, a draft declaration of U.S. nuclear facilities to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, contained descriptions of sensitive civilian sites, including the locations of facilities that store enriched uranium and other materials used in nuclear weapons. It was available for about a day on a Government Printing Office Web site before inquiries by news organizations prompted its hasty removal.
Nuclear experts said it was theoretically possible that the document could benefit terrorists contemplating an attack on one of the facilities. Still, because the information was unclassified and most of it is publicly available through other sources, the release generally was deemed more embarrassing than harmful.
"It is probably not that dangerous, but it is a violation of the law," said David Albright, a former U.N. nuclear inspector and president the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit research group in Washington. "You don't want this information out there, any more than you would want a thief to know the location of a vault in your house."
The 267-page draft document was intended as a formal declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency as part of U.S. obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Obama administration submitted the document last month to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for technical review.
In a cover letter to Congress that accompanies the document and is posted on the White House's Web site, President Obama states that measures had been taken to "ensure that information of direct national security significance will not be compromised at any such site, location, facility, or activity" as a result of IAEA oversight of U.S. facilities.
The document does not contain information about the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, but it does divulge restricted information such as interior design features of nuclear facilities where fissile materials are stored.
The online appearance of the document was first reported on the blog Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. He noted that much of the draft's contents were designated "sensitive but unclassified."
OnJune 20, 1985, the province of Bataan was witness to the biggest protest-action directed against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), also known as the infamous “Monster of Morong”.
That day was the tail-end of a three-day protest dubbed Welgang Bayan Laban sa Plantang Nukleyar that drew an estimated 33,000 concerned Filipinos from all walks of life from as far as Manila and nearby provinces to march to Balanga, the capital town of Bataan. It was a march that made history, the overwhelming sentiment to put a stop to the operation of the BNPP made the province of Bataan stand still for a day.
They braved the heat, rain, fatigue, thirst and hunger, yet unwavering and steadfast against tanks and soldiers’ barricades. Bataan’s streets and dirt roads overflowing with ordinary folk, young and not so young, standing up for the sake of their loved ones against the danger of a fully-operational nuclear plant. It bespoke of the kind of heroism and unity that would bring about the EDSA Revolution only a few months away.
Now, with the operation of the BNPP relentlessly pursued by Pangasinan Cong. Mark Cojuangco and his cohorts in Congress, and as anti-nuke leaders and members face harassment and repression;we need to reflect on thelessons of the 1985 Welgang Bayan as we renew our efforts to dismantle the BNPP.
Nuclear Free Bataan Movement Network or NFBM would like to invite you in commemorating the historical Welgang Bayan on June 20,2009. We will retrace the SALAKBAYAN ( Sakay at Lakbay) all through the towns of Bataan, to the momentous meeting ( salubong ) at Barangay Tuyo in Balanga of the North and South contingents of that historical marchand will finish off with a program at Balanga Town Plaza.
For those who will be coming from Manila and other parts of the National Capital Region, please coordinate with us so that we can caravan to Bataan.
So that you can plan accordingly, the send-off in San Fernando Junction is scheduled at 7am and we are expected to meet up with the Zambales contingent by 9am in Layac.
From there we would caravan to the towns of Orion and Samal. In Samal, we will march to Abucay where we will have our lunch then afterwards continue onto Bgy. Tuyo to meet the South Contingent for the ‘salubong’ and a short program.
From there, the whole march would head to Balanga Town Plaza for the program proper.
Please wear comfortable green shirts, and footwear, as well as bring provisions for food and drink.If you can, please bring enough to share. If you would like to participate in the program, please don’t hesitate to inform us.
We hope to see you there!
You may contact Chester Amparo @ 09228765851 or email nfbmnet@gmail.com for more information.
Susugalan mo ba ang panganib ng plantang nukleyar?
Sa Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, nakasalang ang kaligtasan at kapakanan ng ating mga minamahal sa buhay at mga susunod na salinlahi.
Lalo’t desidido at determinado ang mga pro-nukes, sa pangunguna ni Cong. Mark Cojuangco at Cong. Herminia Roman na paganahin ang Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) sa bisa ng panukalang HB 6300 (An Act Mandating the Immediate Rehabilitation, Commissioning and Commercial Operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant or Bataan Nuclear Power Plant of 2009).
Mula simula, pinuruhan ng dalawang tusong Kongresista ang probinsya ng Bataan, partikular ang bayan ng Morong na syang tahanan ng BNPP.Umugong ang bali-balitang may inilaang P50 Milyon para basagin ang anti-nukleyar na sentimyento ng taga-Bataan. Usap-usapan ding may Vice Mayor na pinagbili ang paninindigan sa halagang limang milyong piso.
Walang pinalampas na pagkakataon si Cojuangco, (karay nuong una ang mga konggresistang napapirma nya sa kanyang panukala) na mag-ronda barangay sa Morong, pilit kinukumbinsi ang mga tao na kaunlaran at trabaho kung sila’y susugal sa BNPP. Kaalinsabay nito, sunod-sunod namang naglabas ng pamprobinsya at pambayang resolusyon na tumututol sa BNPP.
Buwan ng Hunyo: tapos na ang dalawang buwang bakasyon ng mga mag-aaral at kabataan; Araw ng Kalayaan, mga karaniwang kaganapang iniuugnay sa ika-anim na buwan ng taon.
Para sa mamamayan ng Bataan,ito ang buwan pagpapakita pagkakaisa at paninindigan laban sa Plantang Nukleyar , dalawampu’t apat na taon ng nakalilipas.
Huwebes, Hunyo 20, 1985 animo’y ghost townang buong Bataan - walang pasok sa eskwelahan at pabrika, walang tao sa bukid,walang sasakyan sa lansangan; abala ang mga maybahay sa pag-aayos ng pamatid-uhaw o kaya’y pantawid-gutom sa libo-libong nagmamartsa laban sa Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, ang tinaguriang Halimaw ng Morong. Ang mga barikada’t tangke ng mga Philippine Constabulary (PC) ay walang nagawa sa malakas na daluyong ng mamamayang nagkakaisa.
sa ating lipunan, kalayaan ba'y totoo? kung mga gahaman ang nakaupo sa pwesto? pinagsisilbihan malalaking imperyo. buhay at karapatan, unti-unti naaabo.
kalayaa'y sadyang mailap. hindi mabanaag sa likod ng ulap. sa gitna ng laot, hindi maapuhap. tulad ng buhangin, di makuyom sa palad.
kalayaan, ika'y isang hiyas. batong dyamante ang iyong katulad. sa pagdaan ng panahon, marami ang nangahas, na masilayan ka sa labas ng rehas.
kalayaan, kailan kita mahahagkan? ang iyong mga ngiti, kailan masisilayan? katumbas man nito'y buhay at kamatayan di kailanman titigil, hanggang mahimlay sa iyong kandungan.
Iniratsada na ng Konggreso ang Con Ass sa pamamagitan ng HB 1109!
Walang pangimi sa planong pambababoy sa ating Konstitusyon ang rehimeng US – Arroyo.Sadyang nagkukumahog ang seksyon ng naghaharing uri na maipwesto ang ekstensiyon ng kanilang mga termino.Subalit maliban dito, ang higit na masakit sa matagal nang planong CHACHA ay ang pagsagasa sa ating soberanya at patrimonya.Ibig sabihin, iaalay ng elitistang gobyerno ang anumang natitira pa nating yaman at pag-aari.Ibubukas ito sa kontrol ng dayuhang kapital!
Habang patuloy na bibilugin ang ating mga ulo sa mga seremonyas at pagdiriwang ng araw ng kalayaan! At hayaang patuloy na magkunwari na “malaya na tayo.”
Ano ang dapat gunitain sa Hunyo 12?
Sa ilalim ng gubyernong Arroyo, walang dahilang ipagdiwang ang Hunyo 12! Sa halip, ipinupwersa sa atin ng mga huling kaganapan na maalab na gunitain ang mga ipinaglaban at kagitingan ng ating mga ninuno na humantong sa Hunyo 12.
Kawalan ng lupa ng mga magbubukid, kagutuman ng mamamayan, kontrol at panunupil ng dayuhan, pagsasamantala at pang-aapi ng mananakop at mga kakutsabang ilustrado, pagsasamantala sa kababaihan, at laganap na kamangmangan.Ito ang mga dahilan nag pag-aalsa ng ating mga ninuno.Ito ang nagtulak sa kanila upang puspusin ang pakikibaka at kamtin ang kalayaan.Ito ang dapat nating gunitain sa Hunyo 12!
Paano tayong magdiriwang kung hanggang sa kasalukuyan ay ito pa rin ang nagdudumilat na katotohanan?
Sa gitna ng pandaigdigang krisis – pinansiyal ng sistemang kapitalismo, agaw – buhay naman ang masang anakpawis!
Hindi na totoo ang “isang kahig, isang tuka.”Sa buhay ng masang anakpawis, “walang tigil na kahig, wala pa ring matuka!” O kaya nama’y “gustong-gustong kumahig para may matuka” pero walang oportunidad para makakahig!
Sa Cordillera, 1,900 manggagawa kaagad ang nawalan ng trabaho sa unang bulto ng tanggalan noong Enero 2009. Sa darating na Hulyo, magtatanggal ng 300 manggagawa ang Moog.Idagdag ito sa 500 manggagawa ng TI na natanggal na nuong Pebrero.Sa buong bansa, mahigit 100,000 na ang natanggal o mga manggagawang nabawasan ang oras ng paggawa.
Simula pa 2002 – 2003 ang tuloy-tuloy na economic displacement sa mga magbubukid ng Cordillera lalo na ng Benguet dahil sa pagdagsa ng imported na gulay.Sing-aga ng 2002, ang produksiyong agrikultural ng Cordillera ay bumaba na ng 48.8%! Ang kalakhan ay napupwersang magpatuloy sa pagtatanim kahit paulit-ulit na lumulubog sa utang.Dumarami naman ang bilang ng magbubukid na nagiging malamanggagawa o kaya nama’y sumasama sa walang katiyakang buhay ng mga OFWs.
Wala pa man ang CHACHA, buong puso nang ibinigay sa kontrol ng Hapon ang malaki-laking bilang ng agrikultural na lupain at marine resources sa pamamagitan ng JPEPA (Japan Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement).
Ayon sa pinakahuling sarbey ng NCSB (National Statistics Coordination Board) apat sa anim na probinsiya ng Cordillera ay kasama sa pinakamahihirap na probinsiya sa bansa: ika-apat ang Apayao, ika-siyam ang Abra, ika-labing isa ang Kalinga at ika-16 naman ang Ifugao.
Ang Apayao ang may pinakamataas na poverty incidence sa Cordillera (57.5%).Sinusundan ito ng Abra (50.1%) at ng Ifugao (30.9%).Ang bayan ng Kibungan sa Benguet at ang Asipulo, Mayoyao na mga bayan ng Ifugao ay kasama sa pinakamahihirap na munisipalidad ng bansa.
Ayon sa 2008 data ng CHEd, mula sa 100 Grade One pupils, 66 lamang ang nakakatapos ng Grade Six, 58 sa 66 ang nakakapasok ng first-year hayskul at 43 lamang ang nakakatapos ng hayskul. Sa 43, 23 ang nakakapasok sa kolehiyo at 14 lamang nito ang nakakagradweyt.At masuwerte na kung makapagtrabaho agad ang 14.Kung makapasok man, tiyak na kontraktwal ang bagsak nila!
Samantala, walang pagsidlan ng yaman ang naghaharing uri!
Patuloy na masarap ang buhay ng mga nilalang na siyang may likha ng matinding krisis!Sa mga plano ng bailout o pagsagip sa mga nababangkaroteng institusyon, ang mga kriminal ang isinasalba ng sistemang ito habang patuloy na ginigipit ang bumubuhay sa bansa.Ginigisa tayo sa sarili nating mantika!Patuloy nating pinagugulong ang ekonomya at kapitalismo habang ang ating likhang yaman ay pinagpapasasaan ng mga may-ari ng kapital!
Tunghayan ang pinakamayayaman sa bansa.Henry Sy, may-ari ng SM Prime Holdings, may net worth na 3.1 bilyong dolyar.Lucion Tan, may-ari ng PNB, Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery, PAL, UE, Allied Bank at Tanduay Holdings, may net worth na 1.5 bilyong dolyar! Jaime Zobel de Ayala, may-ari ng Ayala Corporation, may net worth na 1.2 bilyong dolyar! Andrew Tan, may-ari ng Emperador Distillers Incorporation, Megaworld Corporation, may net worth na 700 milyong dolyar! Tony Tan Caktiong, may-ari ng Jollibee, may net worth na 690 milyong dolyar!
John Gokongwei Jr., may-ari ng Cebu Pacific, Robinsons, may networth na 680 milyong dolyar! Eduardo Cojuangco Jr, may-ari ng San Miguel Corporation, may net worth na 610 milyong dolyar! Manny Villar, kasalukuyang Senate President, may-ari ng Palmera and Camella Homes, may net worth na 425 milyong dolyar!
Para kanino ang CHACHA?
Agaw-buhay ang masang anakpawis.Abala naman ang gubyernong Arroyo, hindi upang sagipin sila.Natataranta ang rehimen kung paano palalawigin ang kanyang termino, patuloy na pagsilbihan ang ang naghaharing uri, at ang interes ng US at dayuhang kapital.
Titiyakin ng charter change na alisin ang anumang natitirang probisyon nito na nakikitang sagka sa kalakalan at dayuhang pamumuhunan.Ito ang tunay na agenda ng conass at chacha! Ito ang tunay na adyenda ng US at dayuhang kapital!
Sino ang magsasalba sa atin?
Matagal nang itinuro sa atin ng kalakaran ng pulitika ng bansa na hindi pwestado ang adyenda ng mamamayan sa elitistang pulitika.Itinuro na rin sa atin ng kasaysayan na ang interes ng masang anakpawis at ng buong mamamayan ay dapat ipaglaban mismo ng kanyang hanay at hindi ninuman.Hindi ito kusang ibibigay.
Matapos nating mapanood ang balasubas na “Larong ConAss” ng Konggreso,huwag na nating hayaang paulit-ulit at paulit-ulit tayong insultuhin at balasubasin! Mahigpit nating hawakan ang mga aral ng ating kasaysayan.Buhayin at pag-alabin ang diwa ng Hunyo 12 at ang mapanlabang tradisyon ng mamamayang Pilipino!
Isulong ang interes ng sambayanan! Tutulan ang ConAss!Tutulan ang charter change!Wakasan ang elitistang paghahari! Kapangyarihan sa mamamayan!
KPD Baguio - Benguet invites you to join the People's Protest Center Against Charter Change / Con Ass on June 10 (Wednesday) at the People's Park, Malcom Square, Baguio City. This is a whole day activity which will start at 8:00am up to 7:00 pm.
Let us unite in informing the people about the evils of charter change and the dirty scheme of the Arroyo government to stay in power. Aside from the intentions of GMA and the section of the ruling elite to stay in power, CHACHA will also surrender our sovereignty and patrimony to our neocolonial masters and to globalization!
Let us condemn in the strongest sense HB 1109 or Con Ass Bill! Join the People's Protest Center on June 10!
RSS Feed