|
February
8, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney,
Go to Jail
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Dita
Sari Tells Reebok
to "Shove It"
February
7, 2002
Patrick
Cockburn
Taliban's
War on Chess
John Chuckman
Howdee,
Dick!
Tariq
Ali
Mullahs
and Heretics
February
6, 2002
Amira
Hass
On
the Edge of the
Non-Violent Demonstrations
Vivian
Berger
Sentenced
to Rape
Vladimir Georgiyev
Russian Intelligence:
War on Iraq Begins in Sept.
Tom Turnipseed
"Axis
of Evil" a Cover for Corporate Corruption?
David
Vest
The
Enron Creature
February
5, 2002
Norman
Madarasz
Dispatch
from Pôrto Alegre
Tom Malinowski
What
to do with
Our "Detainees"?
Dita Sari
Why
I Rejected the
Reebok Human Rights Award
February
4, 2002
Eric Miller/Beth
Daley
Five
Weapons Systems
That Bilk the Taxpayers
Kenneth
Roth
Dear
Condoleezza,
You've Misstated the
Geneva Convention
Robert
Jensen
The
Occupation Must End
Shahid
Alam
How
Different Are
Islamic Societies?
David
Vest
Everybody
Says I Loathe You
John Chuckman
American
Politics of Grief
February
3, 2002
Zoltan
Grossman
War
and New Military Bases
February
2, 2002
Francis
Schor
Carlucci's
Strange Career
February
1, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
The
Great Ashcroft Cover Up
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
February 8,
2002
WEF: the Aftermath
Time to Replace Globalization
with Localization
By Wole Akande
Last weekend's World Economic Forum in New York
was noticeably different from previous globalization conferences
for several reasons. Held in the Swiss ski resort of Davos in
its first 31 years, the sponsors of the forum decided to move
this year's forum to New York to show support for the city after
the September 11 terror attacks. Remarkably, the total number
arrested during the meeting was barely over 200, mostly for disorderly
conduct, a far cry from previous WTO or other globalization meetings.
Surprisingly, speaker after speaker at the World Economic Forum
lambasted America as a smug superpower, too beholden to Israel
at the expense of the Muslim world, and inattentive to the needs
of poor countries or the advice of allies. In a curious convergence,
the titans of business and politics at the meeting seized on
many of the same socially liberal issues that they have been
accused of ignoring at past gatherings.
Does this mean we now have globalization
with a human face?
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Indeed, in the last year or so, globalization
and market forces, the much hyped panacea of world economics,
have gone awry. Bloodshed in the Middle East, terrorist attacks
in New York, a worldwide recession and falling corporate profits
for powerful multinationals have unsettled the stock markets
and ordinary consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The continuing
influence of local circumstances and politics on the precarious
global economy is stronger than ever.
In the 1990s globalization was shamelessly
hyped for the good fortune it would bring. Ethnic hatreds would
melt away as the internet and McDonald's hamburger stalls spread
worldwide. Expanding free markets would cure the world's ills.
Many, such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, preached the
doctrine of interdependence. In that Promised Land, it was not
terribly important who was in charge. The markets were.
In retrospect, in some parts of the globe,
the dominance of market forces has had unexpected results. For
instance, globalization has integrated global capital markets
and consequently this has increased the ease with which individuals
in the rich developed countries of the north and poorer developing
countries of the south can move their assets abroad. However,
the rising scale of capital flight from developing countries
is a matter of increasing concern.
When we think about the causes of poverty
in the developing world, the International Debt Crisis, IMF,
corruption, strife and civil wars readily come to mind. Capital
flight as a blight on growth in developing countries and a major
cause of poverty in these countries is often neglected.
Without capital flight and corruption
the international debt crisis would not exist in its current
form. More than half of developing countries' debts are in the
form of private capital deposited in the tax havens controlled
by the banks of the north. The five leading countries that host
this type of capital are Panama, Cayman Islands, Switzerland,
Luxembourg and the United States.
Although many people living in developing
countries are familiar with the incidence of capital flight from
their countries, the actual measurement of this phenomenon reveals
the staggering proportions of the depletion of resources from
poor countries to affluent ones.
According to a background report prepared
by Valpy Fitzgerald and Alex Cobham of the University of Oxford
for the DFID (Department for International Development, UK),
in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East 39 percent of domestic
investors' portfolios are held abroad. The total value of Sudanese
assets held abroad exceeds the country's GNP; Nigeria's external
assets are equal to the country's GDP while Kenya's is around
75 percent of the GNP.
Obviously, the effect of a return of
such (relatively) huge investment flows would be dramatic. Furthermore
the estimated average share of total national debt generated
by despots in 22 countries that have, or had, entrenched dictatorships
is 57 percent. "Trade-faking," the deliberate under-invoicing
of exports to, and over-invoicing of exports from associated
companies to present false accounts and accrue balances overseas,
has severely distorting effects for some African countries and
India.
Not surprisingly, from the perspective
of the developing world, globalization is not a bed of roses.
Perhaps we need to think again.
Globalization needs to be replaced by
localization - protecting and rebuilding local economies.
Long distance trade would be gradually
reduced to supplying what could not come from within one country
or a region. Trade would be conducted under rules that give preference
to goods supplied in a way that benefits workers, the local community
and the environment. The global flow of technology and information
would be encouraged only when and where it could strengthen local
economies.
This does not mean a return to overpowering
state control. But new rules would have to be enacted to stop
imported goods and services that could be produced locally. Industries
would have to be put in the local community if they are to win
permission to sell in it.
Today's global casino consists of traders
gambling on minute market fluctuations. In 1980, the daily average
of foreign trading was $80 billion. Today, more than $1,500 billion
flows daily across international borders. Up to 90% of transactions
are speculative (based on movements in currency and interest
rates) rather than productive.
Democratic control over such capital
is the key to providing the money for governments and communities
to rebuild. In addition to tax on international capital transactions
to curb currency speculators, broader regulation of finance capital
will be required. This would include controls on capital flows,
taxes on short term speculative transactions, tightening of easy
credit that allows speculators to multiply the size of their
bets way beyond the cash required to cover them.
A widespread and co-ordinated attack
on corporate tax evasion and capital flight including offshore
banking centers is also essential. Naturally, the markets would
immediately punish any country proposing such controls on its
own. However, a regional grouping of powerful states such as
the European Union would be a secure and lucrative enough market
to ensure that those who control money would not dare leave the
safety and security afforded by such a bloc. This pattern would
then be attempted globally.
Politically, the 20th century was a battle
between left and right. In the 21st century the contest will
pit localists against those struggling to manage globalization.
The former will seek control over the local economy; the latter
will continue to see globalization as inevitable as gravity.
Their role will be to attempt to make it a better balance for
all of us.
Wole Akande
lives in Nigeria. Akande writes for YellowTimes.
He encourages your comments: wakande@YellowTimes.ORG
|