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

Sunday, July 27, 2014

American Empire: Reaping What It Has Sown in Latin America

Click here to access article by xraymike79 from Collapse of Industrial Civilization.
...after destroying the means of survival for so many in Latin America, the poor and destitute turn to whatever means necessary in order to stay alive — crime, gangs, and the drug trade. The U.S. has reacted to this lawlessness by militarizing the “war on drugs”, providing even more weaponry and support to fascist governments who can then brutally squash any grassroots social movements which challenge the neoliberal capitalist order. It’s a vicious feedback loop in which the U.S. is forced to combat the very social disintegration of Latin America that U.S. economic policy has created. Thus, a fourth factor in America’s immigration crisis is the neocon militarization of the drug war and support of fascist governments aligned with U.S. corporate interests....
Because I am on a email list from Rights Action, I get nearly daily reports from their observers of all kinds of atrocities that people in Central America suffer at the hands of US and Canadian corporations, paramilitary armies, their corrupt governments, and occasionally direct US military actions. Very little of these reports are reflected in mainstream media. So, now we see the blow-back from such activities by recent sensational and highly distorted coverage of children fleeing these violence ridden countries and entering the US. Thus, as always, we get the blow-back without the "blow", and, as always, the American people are easily misled and manipulated by media owned by the ruling class that has perpetrated the atrocities. 

Do I need to state the obvious solution? Well, it seems that I do. The solution is: support those who are attempting to provide honest news by reputable journalists and other observers, and doing so with very little funding. Support and follow the websites listed on my website for starters. Although I spend four to five hours daily on my project, I don't need your financial support because I am retired with enough to live on. But, many other sites do need your support to simply exist.