In Global problems and the culture of capitalism, Ch. 4 under the markets and free trade section, pg 115 it brings up the Coalition Provisional Authority or CPA. It says that the CPA was formed after the invasion, to govern Iraq until democratic elections could take place. Makes sense to have a sort of temporary government in such an unstable time for a country. But the CPA emplaced economic reforms on Iraq, to turn it into a "model demonstration of "free trade" and neoliberal economic theory." But didn't we learn after the 1980's that neoliberalism doesn't work to well? Not only that but the reforms made don't seem to me, to have Iraq in mind at all. Robbins even says " These orders constituted a corporate wish list of rules and regulations that virtually no democratic legislature could openly support, let alone implement." I get that its suppose to make it appealing for foreign investors and corporations to do business there. But in the end its suppose to help the country right? Like the reform that allows investors to take 100% of profits earned out of Iraq without having to reinvest back into Iraq. That doesn't seem to have Iraq in mind at all. And later on it even says that the CPA planned to make these reforms into the iraqi constitution so that future governments would have to follow them. Thats just messed up. To me this is just way for big corporations to make more money at the expense of a country torn apart by war. I'm also surprised I never heard about this on the news at all. One would think that with all the antiwar movements and protesting someone would have brought this up. and maybe they did, it just might have never made it to the media. -Trevor Stewart
Trevor: I have similar feelings about the actions of the CPA and their mismanagement of funds. The comment on media is spot on. The actions of the United states are portrayed differently all over the world. In the United states the media can legally lie, it has been upheld in court. A journalist working for a Fox News affiliate was covering a Monsanto product (bovine growth hormone) ending up in a legal battle over telling the truth, everybody but the journalist looks pretty bad in the end. I usually dislike linking wikipedia links, however the sources at the bottom of the page links to the court cases and some interesting write ups.
The intro and first chapter of Guerrillas by Jon Anderson were extremely interesting. I was especially intrigued by the accounts of Palestinian "guerrillas" and their everyday lives. It is kind of embarrassing how little I know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its history. I like how the book compares the different types of resistance armies, the three that the author covered first all had a common characteristic of oral history telling from generation to generation. In order to keep the resistance from dissipating the culture must incorporate these stories of past events. I am looking forward to the rest of this book. -Mark Peterman
Response #3 to Robbins Ch. 4 The ways to remove barriers to trade on page 116 and 117 is the area that most interested me in chapter 4. The first and most obvious way was through military action the second way was through agreements with other countries such as the NAFTA agreement with Canada, USA, and Mexico. The third is through actions taken by a multinational organization like the IMF or the World Bank and the last is by joining a group such as the WTO. This section also talks about wether the removal of trade barriers helps or hurts certain countries which from what I’ve read and learned in class I feel that some of the more powerful countries kind of push around some of the smaller developing countries to get their way which makes them more productive at the detriment of those countries economies and agricultural production. -Garfield Anderson
In Global problems and the culture of capitalism, Ch. 4 under the markets and free trade section, pg 115 it brings up the Coalition Provisional Authority or CPA. It says that the CPA was formed after the invasion, to govern Iraq until democratic elections could take place. Makes sense to have a sort of temporary government in such an unstable time for a country. But the CPA emplaced economic reforms on Iraq, to turn it into a "model demonstration of "free trade" and neoliberal economic theory." But didn't we learn after the 1980's that neoliberalism doesn't work to well? Not only that but the reforms made don't seem to me, to have Iraq in mind at all. Robbins even says " These orders constituted a corporate wish list of rules and regulations that virtually no democratic legislature could openly support, let alone implement." I get that its suppose to make it appealing for foreign investors and corporations to do business there. But in the end its suppose to help the country right? Like the reform that allows investors to take 100% of profits earned out of Iraq without having to reinvest back into Iraq. That doesn't seem to have Iraq in mind at all. And later on it even says that the CPA planned to make these reforms into the iraqi constitution so that future governments would have to follow them. Thats just messed up. To me this is just way for big corporations to make more money at the expense of a country torn apart by war. I'm also surprised I never heard about this on the news at all. One would think that with all the antiwar movements and protesting someone would have brought this up. and maybe they did, it just might have never made it to the media.
ReplyDelete-Trevor Stewart
Trevor: I have similar feelings about the actions of the CPA and their mismanagement of funds. The comment on media is spot on. The actions of the United states are portrayed differently all over the world. In the United states the media can legally lie, it has been upheld in court. A journalist working for a Fox News affiliate was covering a Monsanto product (bovine growth hormone) ending up in a legal battle over telling the truth, everybody but the journalist looks pretty bad in the end. I usually dislike linking wikipedia links, however the sources at the bottom of the page links to the court cases and some interesting write ups.
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Akre
The intro and first chapter of Guerrillas by Jon Anderson were extremely interesting. I was especially intrigued by the accounts of Palestinian "guerrillas" and their everyday lives. It is kind of embarrassing how little I know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its history. I like how the book compares the different types of resistance armies, the three that the author covered first all had a common characteristic of oral history telling from generation to generation. In order to keep the resistance from dissipating the culture must incorporate these stories of past events. I am looking forward to the rest of this book.
ReplyDelete-Mark Peterman
Response #3 to Robbins Ch. 4
ReplyDeleteThe ways to remove barriers to trade on page 116 and 117 is the area that most interested me in chapter 4. The first and most obvious way was through military action the second way was through agreements with other countries such as the NAFTA agreement with Canada, USA, and Mexico. The third is through actions taken by a multinational organization like the IMF or the World Bank and the last is by joining a group such as the WTO. This section also talks about wether the removal of trade barriers helps or hurts certain countries which from what I’ve read and learned in class I feel that some of the more powerful countries kind of push around some of the smaller developing countries to get their way which makes them more productive at the detriment of those countries economies and agricultural production.
-Garfield Anderson