globalization & Pynchon?

[Jane Sweet]

calbert at tiac.net wrote:
> 
> Weaver:
> 
> > There was one country in the Americas not invited to Quebec,
> > ostensibly because it isn't democratic (according to U.S.
> > definitions.).
> 
> I think the roster was strictly limited to those countries where citizens
> are permitted, even encouraged, to read ANIMAL FARM......

ha, ha, ha.....

> 
>  Might be more to do with it having a system which
> > favours attacking poverty over generating profits.
> 
> Profits allow one to attack poverty, good intentions don't feed
> squat.....

And isn't there a platitude that also says, the road to
poverty is paved with the good intentions of
"revolutionaries?"  


> 
> >  Perhaps those on the list attempting to defend
> > capitalism would like to explain its failure to diminish the horrific
> > contrasts referred to.
> 
> You've got a deal, buddy......but when I'm done, you will have to
> explain just how much Cuba has been contribute to the alleviation of
> misery world wide - and I'm not talking about sending a few medical
> brigades around (as admirable as such an effort is it does little to
> advance an economic system)....

Well first I would like to read an explanation of why you
think capitalism is responsible for the horrific
inequalities and gaps. 



> 
> "If the present is tragic, the future looks dismal." Let
> > nobody try to fool or confuse us with the new terminology spawned by
> > the hypocritical propaganda of specialists in deception and lies,
> > working in the service of those who have subjected humanity to an
> > increasingly unequal and unfair economic and political order, one that
> > is completely devoid of solidarity or democracy or even an iota of
> > respect for the minimum rights owed to human beings."
> 
> So the alternative is to subject oneself to the "hypocritical
> propaganda, yada yada" of NATIVE "specialists in deceptions and
> lies"...Do you believe that the human rights situation in autarkic
> Argentina, Spain, Brasil was better than it is today? Did citizens
> enjoy a greater distribution of "the franchise" under the argentine or
> brasilian juntas or Franco? How about income distribution, access to
> education?

Well, if they all follow Japan's and turn back to an
agrarian society, as was suggested here, I hope in jest. 
The girl in the rice field is not a girl but a boy, see the
Ballad of Narayama, great film. 



> 
> > exaggerating when I made that statement. The Third World's foreign
> > debt, which totaled some 500 billion dollars in 1981, had reached 2.1
> > trillion dollars in the year 2000. The share corresponding to Latin
> > America was 255.188 billion dollars in 1981; by 2000, it was 750.855
> > billion.
> 
> This argues that, on a relative basis, Latin America is LESS exposed
> to the predations of "foreign debt" today than in 1981, or conversely,
> that it has grown increasingly INDEPENDENT of such loans.....

Nothing wrong with Debt. It's kinda important, well if you
are going to have an economy that is. 

> 
>  The servicing of the Third World debt, which amounted to 44.2
> > billion USD in 1981, had reached 347.4 billion USD in 2000.
> 
> Using Fidel's stats, this is consistent with the 3rd world drawing an
> increasing share of such financing.........To its credit, the first world
> lenders, whether under political and social pressure, or perhaps
> even pragmatism, are involved in a program of debt forgiveness.....

Nothing wrong with debt. What the developing world needs is
more debt not less. 



> 
>  The per
> > capita gross national product (GDP) in the developed countries was
> > 8,070 USD in 1978. Twenty years later, in 1998, per capita GDP in
> > those countries had grown to 25,870 USD. In the meantime, the per
> > capita GDP in the countries with the lowest incomes, which was 200 USD
> > in 1978, had risen to only 530 USD by the year 1998. The abysmal gap
> > had grown even wider.
> 
> This is a tremendous tragedy, fuelled in  great part by the GROSS
> corruption of local officials who have stolen the bulk of such aid -
> ironically to re-invest in the 1st world economies from which the
> funds originated....The answer to this is not to tear down the world
> credit mechanism, but to AGGRESSIVELY PURSUE AND
> PROSECUTE such miscreants, and to confiscate their ill gotten
> assets.......

What is the cause of this gap? Is it exploitation of the
developing world by the developed world? Globalization? Why
is the gap between US rich and US working class & poor
growing? What's the connection?