We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, July 18, 2011

Debt : The Greeks and Deptocracy [A must-read]

Click here to access article by Aldous from Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt.
A documentary film entitled Deptocracy – Chréokratia (Chréos is the Greek word meaning “debt”) has become wildly popular in Greece since that country has been systematically drained while in the clutches of the IMF. Here is a translation of the film which explains the mechanisms for subjugating a country by what economists call “Odious Debt”.
(The link to the series of You Tube videos which are in the Greek language did not work for me. Here is the link for video 1 of 5 which also provides links to the rest. There are a few English speakers featured who provide some excellent insights.)

Because this film is so excellent at shedding much needed light on the crises affecting so many hundreds of millions of people across the globe, I am astonished as to why this film has not been provided with English subtitles! This English translation of excerpts from the film is very helpful, and I thank the folks at CADTM for this contribution.

Meanwhile, in addition to reading these translated excerpts, I highly recommend that you also view this 13 minute video entitled, "Europe in Peril: Debts and Social Cuts".

It must be clearly understood that under globalized capitalism we now have a tiny first world scattered throughout the world like islands lying in oceans of third world people made up of people like you and me. Thus, the first world and the third world exists everywhere in the world. As the global capitalist elites have erased boundaries for themselves, we productive people of the world must also join hands across boundaries if we are to liberate ourselves from the debt slavery we find ourselves in. We can no longer quietly submit to the demands of our capitalist masters who insist that we slash funding for education, health, and welfare to pay these debts to them.

What has brought us to this present crisis is the organized efforts of the global capitalist elites who have created fake democratic governments throughout the world that have actively colluded with them to produce this debt enslavement. We must not limit ourselves to protests in the hope that we can get better debt payback terms from our capitalist masters. We must overturn the system of class rule based on the private ownership of the economy and a fake democracy. We must do the hard work of creating an equitable and sustainable economic system along with real democracies not only because it is just, but because it is necessary if the human race is going to survive in an ecologically stable environment.