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Threads 2.6 10/13/08
precious minerals. Richard Nixon characterized Indonesia
as "containing the regions richest hoard of natural
resources." Eisenhower's administration also set its eye on
Indonesia in 1958 and sought to sabotage Sukarno's
presidency with the same objective - to get to their natural
resources.
When Suharto gained control in March of 1966, the west'sability to influence and trade with Indonesia quickly began
to happen. In a move for the US to rally support of
Indonesians for Suharto, the US sent shipments of cloth
and rice to the country in order to lower the prices for
these commodities.
As Indonesia's borders began to open up, their economy
did increase as a whole, but just as the growth of
Globalization, and its offspring, outsourcing have come to
demonstrate, benefits of this practice helps few and
impoverishes many. In Indonesia, along with many
countries who participate in Globalization - the gap
between the rich and poor grows significantly each year.
Globalization is creating a world of the "haves" and the"have not’s" - a world not out of H.G. Wells imagination,
but rather from our own doing.
Globalization has been praised as the 'civilization of the
new age', the result of this new civilization has, in essence
shrunk and flattened our world. A company no longer
must depend solely on the material and personnel
resources of its immediate surroundings - instead they can
seek out these resources elsewhere. This allows for
companies to avoid restrictions that would normally be
imposed on them by the laws that govern them.
Globalization has allowed for business' to do what they all
strive to do - gain profit while limiting expenses, and many
have done this at the cost of humanity.
On the surface, globalization is a process fueled by, and
resulting in, increasing cross-border flows of goods,
services, money, people, information and culture. But the
benefits of these cross-border flows of goods, services,
money, people, information and culture seem to only go in
one direction - up, to the people and companies who
implement globalization solely for their own personal
gains.
"Around the world, in rich or poor nations, poverty has
always been present. In most nations today, inequality,
the gap between the rich and poor - is quite high and often
widening. Whether the cause is a lack of individual
responsibility, bad government policy, exploitation by
people and businesses with power and influence, or some
combination, many feel high levels of
inequality will lead to problems such
as increasing crime and violence, and
risks social cohesion.
"The latest World Bank figures for
world poverty reveal a higher number
of people live in poverty than previously thought. For
example, the new poverty line is defined as $1.25 a day.
1.4 billion people live on or below that line. Furthermore,
almost half the world - over three billion - live on less than
$2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than
$10 a day," says globalissues.org
This increase in poverty is not a phenomenon of lesserdeveloped countries. The inequalities mentioned above
are most prevalent not in the "third world" countries, but
rather in the most developed countries such as the United
States.
"The US itself also has the largest gap and inequality
between rich and poor compared to all the other
industrialized nations. For example, the top 1% receives
more money than the bottom 40% and the gap is the
widest in 70 years. Furthermore, in the last 20 years while
the share of income going to the top 1% has increased, it
has decreased for the poorest 40%, [emphasis mine] " says
globalissues.org.
It is an interesting coincidence that globalization as we
know it really started to mature with the invention of the
internet, which was 20 years ago. Poverty has always been
an issue in the world, but the inequality that is running
rampant globally has not.
A glaring example of the effects of globalization could be
witnessed in Greenville Michigan in 2006 with the
outsourcing of the community’s largest employer -
Electrolux. Despite government incentives, tax cuts and
community loyalty, the company which was the life blood
of the community for over 100 years moved its operations
to Mexico in the hopes of maximizing profits due to the
lower restrictions on employee wages. When Electrolux
left Greenville in March of 2006, it put 2,700 people out of
a job, which left one quarter of Greenville unemployed.
Similar exoduses of companies are happening all
throughout the US. Some businesses are simply just
relocating their factory work to other countries to take
advantage of lower regulations, or moving their entire
operation to another country, but the toll this is taking on
humanity is becoming more apparent.
"It is reported that about 30% of the world's population is
unemployed. That's worse than the Great Depression, but
it's now an international phenomenon. You have 30% of
the world unemployed, a huge amount of work. That
needs to be done just rebuilding the society alone. The
people who are unemployed want to do the work, but the
system is such a catastrophic failure
that it cannot bring together idle
hands and work. This is all hailed as a
great success, and it is a great success -
for a very small sector of the
population," says Noam Chomsky.
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OPINION
Thoughts on the President - Elect
By Chad Heller
As the rain pours outside my bedroom window, Istare at the November 5 cover of The Grand Rapids
Press newspaper with the large, white, bold words
"FACE OF CHANGE" staring back at me. Against a
black background an image of President-elect Barack
Obama looks on as the new face of America, and I
keep thinking about what he'll be up against.
America is still quite
broken in many aspects;
there still exists racial,
economic, political and
social divisions throughoutthe nation. There is a lot of
distrust of the government
and the American dream
as we make this historical
transition to our first black
president. One question on
my mind is - can he help us
heal? This country needs a
lot of healing; will an
Obama presidency be the
first-aid kit the USA so desperately needs?
"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will besteep. We may not get there in one year or even one
term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful
than I am tonight that we will get there," said
President-elect Barack Obama in his acceptance
speech. He is well aware of how crippled America is,
and I am encouraged that he seeks to repair damage
that was brought on by years past.
Of all the obstacles and challenges that I see Obama
taking on however, the one that I believe will be the
most difficult for him to take on will be those
brought on by prejudice. There is a segment of oursociety that still finds it difficult to understand that
people of other races and ethnicities are still people.
Within days of the election there have been several
reports of assaults, fire bombings and vandalism
directed at African Americans as a result of Obama's
win. The FBI and ATF have already broken up two
plots to kill Obama. The post election vandalism
included a church burning in Springfield
Massachusetts that had an entirely black
congregation. There was an Obama supporter’s car
set fire in Greenville Pennsylvania, the person
responsible spray painted "Obama" on the trunk
before starting the vehicle on fire. A gang of four
white men in New York beat a Black Muslimteenager while yelling "Obama" because they were
angered at his win. And in North Carolina four
students spray painted racist messages in a tunnel,
saying (in more crude terms) that Obama should be
shot in the head.
These incidents show that tensions in this country
still do exist, and I feel that one of Obama's most
difficult tasks will be
addressing this as
President. These issues are
caused from an irrational
fear and an unjustified
superficial hate. There is
nothing rational about any
of the acts that were
committed, nor is there
anything rational about the
feelings of many of the
people who dislike Obama
simply because of his skin
color.
In the next four years, hopefully the biggest change
that Obama brings to America is that he can show tothese people that their hatred and fears are
unfounded and irrational. That he can prove once
and for all that African Americans deserve the same
dignity as any other person in this country.
The simple fact that Obama was able to be elected
President is a huge step forward, but this progress
has to continue. These racial tensions in our society
are harmful to the country as a whole. Diversity is
strength, not a weakness in any country. Although I
believe hatred is ugly in any form, I also believe
hatred of someone for something so superficial such
as skin color is quite possibly the ugliest form of
hatred that exists. This ugliness needs to be
removed from our society before we can move
forward.
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Drop! Cover! And Hold On!
Today, Southern California will take part in the United
States largest earthquake preparedness drill in history.
There will be an expected 5.2 million people participating
in this drill that will begin at 10AM.
Every person participating is expected to "drop, cover and
hold on" as if there were a major earthquake going on.
This is to happen no matter where the person happens to
be, whether they are at home, work, school or shopping.
There will not be any simulated power outages, freeway
closures or other effects because of this drill. This drill is
designed to inform citizens of Southern California what
they need to do in the case of an earthquake. Although an
earthquake cannot be predicted, scientists believe that the
area is long overdue for one.
According to a study done by the 2007 Working Group on
California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP 2007), theirCalifornia Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF) that
predicts the likelihood of an earthquake throughout all of
California says that there is a 99.7% chance of an
earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude or higher occurring in
the region before 2030. The earthquake drill is designed to
educate people on what to do when a large earthquake
occurs.
The "big one", according to the study, is much more likely
to hit the Southern half of California. Although there is no
way to predict when an earthquake will happen, the group
develops their statistics using information they've
gathered from the area’s history of earthquakes to
develop an estimate of the time period when the next
earthquake will happen.
During the drill, the citizens will follow a procedure called
"Drop! Cover! Hold on! in which once the jolt - or, when
the drill starts, a person will drop to the ground, and if
they are in a building, find an object like a table to get
under and to finally hold on until the shaking (or drill) isover. This is done so people will be protected from objects
that may be thrown around due to the shaking caused by
an earthquake. If a table or desk isn't nearby, a person is
told to cover their face and head with their arms.
Studies of past earthquakes show that most injuries occur
when a person is hit by things such as TVs, lamps, glass,
bookcases and other things that are knocked over when
shaking from an earthquake happens. Getting in a door
way is no longer considered safe since doorways do not
offer protection from falling objects and aren't any safer
than any other part of a building.
Although Southern California is known for the frequency of earthquakes, they are not exclusive to that region in the
United States. Each year 12,000 to 14,000 earthquakes
occur, which is roughly 35 per day somewhere in the
world. A majority of these are so small they can't be felt.
Of these, there are roughly 18 major earthquakes that do
occur around the world, and typically one great
earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.0 or above. These
larger ones typically happen along fault lines, but can
happen anywhere, so knowing what to do in the event of
an earthquake is beneficial no matter where a person is
geographically located.
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