Who will be the next superpower

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kevv729
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14 Oct 2005, 8:11 pm

eamonn wrote:

kevv729 wrote:

That is why the World envies the U.S.A.

LOL. The worrying thing is you are probably serious.

Yes very serious. It is hard being the LONE SUPERPOWER in the WORLD and having the WORLD ENVY US IN THE PROCESS.

kevv729
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14 Oct 2005, 8:15 pm

ascan wrote:

Sean, aren't you similarly restricted by legislation? Laws in respect of libel, and all that PC garbage? Doesn't that Patriot Act restrict what you can say, too?

That is why the Supreme Court might strike down some of provisions of the Act, or even Congress will change some provisions of the Act.

jb814
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14 Oct 2005, 8:20 pm

RobertN wrote:

We have this thing called free speech here in the UK, Sean, which your capitalist USA seems to lack.

You were out of the Country when the new anti-terror legislation was introduced?

eamonn
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14 Oct 2005, 8:49 pm

kevv729 wrote:

Yes very serious. It is hard being the LONE SUPERPOWER in the WORLD and having the WORLD ENVY US IN THE PROCESS.

I think your best taking your argument to the 'Kid's Crater'. If you are lucky you might find someone there willing to involve themselves in such a childish discussion over who's daddy is bigger than the rest but id rather have a proper debate here if you dont mind young feller! :wink:

Last edited by eamonn on 14 Oct 2005, 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

kevv729
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14 Oct 2005, 9:30 pm

eamonn

We have already debated this sorry to say. I was hoping that someonelse would respond.

ascan
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15 Oct 2005, 2:45 am

RobertN wrote:

ascan wrote:

RobertN wrote:

We have this thing called free speech here in the UK...

No we don't, RobertN. What we say is governed by a whole raft of legislation. How can it be free, when saying the wrong thing can get you arrested, and when the current government only seeks to restrict further what's deemed acceptable?

So you think we should scrap all the anti-terror legislation then, Ascan?

I'm not saying it's likely that people will ever be in a position to say exactly what they want, or that that is necessarily desireable. I simply made the point that we don't have freedom of speech, and the constraints imposed on what we are allowed to say are political. That corrected your inaccurate statement.

Like I've said elsewhere, if the state actually policed current legislation properly, and didn't have to worry about pussy-footing around a bunch of bloody foreigners, we'd all be a lot happier — bloody foreigners included

jb814
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15 Oct 2005, 4:31 am

Apart from the xenophobia I'm with ascan on this. The anti-terror legislation is at best counter productive, at worst cheap pandering to hysteria and an attempt to keep that hysteria going. There is none of the support that most muslims need to self police, there is every danger that things are being made more difficult for intelligence services and nothing is being done to address root causes of the feelings that generate these terrorists in the first place. The terror laws will not be applied to the scum who masquerade under the christian banner (that iexcludes the vast majority of christians, but not those who have used it as an excuse to run an apartheid system in NI) but will cause problems for law abiding and decent muslims.
It took a long time for those rights that are being thrown away so casually to accrue.

RobertN
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15 Oct 2005, 7:02 am

The anti-terror legislation is effectively banning free-speech, and is already being used to silence critics of the Iraq War (look at the case of Walter Wolfgang at the Labour Party Conference)! !!

We need to be vigilent if we are to avoid a 1984 situation.

ascan
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15 Oct 2005, 9:46 am

RobertN, as you've mentioned Orwell, and I've just read your suggestion to a moderator, I was wondering if you've read Animal Farm?

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Probably not...

vetivert
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15 Oct 2005, 11:10 am

ascan - whilst i interpreted your "bloody foreigner" in the spirit of slight irony (the latter part of the sentence would suggest so, just), please could i ask that you have a think about such phrases - they could well be misinterpreted, and are borderline offensive as it is.

apart from anything else, this board comprises members frommany different cultures, even without considering the wider implications.

thank you.

Vivi
(as Mod)

ascan
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15 Oct 2005, 11:18 am

Yes, boss.

irishmic
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15 Oct 2005, 3:05 pm

Pushing back a strong desire to meet vetivert in person, I trudge on.
In doing some research for another posting this morning, I discovered this article
"The Massacre of the Poor That The World Ignored"
by Naomi Klein
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1530800,00.html

In February 2004, the US-supported a coup ousting Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
When asked why he was ousted, Aristide responded by saying "privatization".

Quote:

Washington's negotiators made one demand that Aristide could not accept: the immediate sell-off of Haiti's state-owned enterprises, including phones and electricity. Aristide argued that unregulated privatisation would transform state monopolies into private oligarchies, increasing the riches of Haiti's elite and stripping the poor of their national wealth.

He threatened to arrest anyone who went ahead with privatisations. "Washington was very angry at me. They said I didn't respect my word, when they were the ones who didn't respect our common economic policy."

The US cut off more than $500m in promised loans and aid, starving his government, and poured millions into the coffers of opposition groups, culminating ultimately in the February 2004 armed coup.

And the war continues. On June 23 Roger Noriega, US assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, called on UN troops to take a more "proactive role" in going after armed pro-Aristide gangs. In practice, this has meant a wave of collective punishment inflicted on neighbourhoods known for supporting Aristide.

And just in case that news is a little too old, and a little too far away for some of you, here is another article by Naomi from the October addition of The Nation.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/klein

Quote:

New Orleans is already displaying signs of a demographic shift so dramatic that some evacuees describe it as "ethnic cleansing."

And while homes in neighborhoods lie vacant while the poorest remain homeless the corpoately connected are taking money to the bank.

Quote:

An hour earlier I had interviewed New Orleans' top corporate lobbyist, Mark Drennen. As president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., Drennen was in an expansive mood, pumped up by signs from Washington that the corporations he represents--everything from Chevron to Liberty Bank to Coca-Cola--were about to receive a package of tax breaks, subsidies and relaxed regulations so generous it would make the job of a lobbyist virtually obsolete.

Let there be little mistake about who runs the world.
Why do they run it?
As Robert T. Kiyoski's (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad) rich dad said,
"The rich invent money," and we my friends buy it.
"Give unto Ceaser that which is Ceaser's, and to God what is God's" Jesus ben Joseph

As long as the mass of humainty remains duped into playing the game the game will continue, and people will witness the world they create.

vetivert
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15 Oct 2005, 4:33 pm

ascan - LOL

irishmic - is that cos you want to poke me in the eye or give me the thumbs up? i am bemused...

irishmic
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15 Oct 2005, 5:29 pm

Thats cuz I want to trigger all of your sensory issues by invading your space, wrapping my arms around you,giving you a big old smooch on the cheek, while telling you how wonderful you are.

But, I'd settle for poking you in the eye. :twisted:

Last edited by irishmic on 15 Oct 2005, 5:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

vetivert
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15 Oct 2005, 5:33 pm

ah.

okay.

i'll just.. er... i'll just go over here for a bit, and, er, squeak...

thank you

:oops:

Mithrandir
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16 Oct 2005, 1:59 am

RobertN wrote:

Mithrandir wrote:

"Socialism, on the other hand, when chosen as a system of government in a democratic country, will ALWAYS"

There is no emphasis on higher production.
That only works if you have unlimitted resources with easy and fast access.

That is why as i said earlier, P2P is the only socialist system that works.

what?

What motive do people have to work? In Capitalist countries, it is money. If everyone gets equal pay no matter what, then whats the point?
Is it right to pay janitors as much as doctors?

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