Hip Hop Forward

In follow-up to the AIG Did Nothing Wrong article, AIG just paid out another 100 million dollars in bonuses except this time there was no major government hype to slap AIG on the wrist. I wonder why?

Well, it’s directly related to the reason stated in my prior article about the initial bonus payout that was made public last year in 2009. Here it is as I stated last March:

“… the government was already privy to AIG’s plan to payout bonuses months in advance. For that reason, the government’s apparent outrage seems to be a sham. Their scrutiny is for the sake of appearing vigilant of corporate use of taxpayer dollars – a move that will help taxpayers feel that their money is under the watchful eye of the administration.”

The government’s reaction and the media fiasco were a ploy, a front, and a public relations stunt to cast the illusion that the government would be vigilant of the corporate state. After all, AIG was propped up by the taxpayers’ dollars so the public’s outrage at AIG’s decision to use taxpayer funds to line their own pockets is certainly justified. In light of that outrage, it was handled by the government and media tagteam with sympathy and agreement:

- The Sympathy

The government and the media sympathized with the public’s dissatisfaction in a superficial way.

- The Agreement

They wiped the tears from the public eye and told everyone (in essence) that, “things will be alright, we’ll make sure [AIG/ bailed out corporations] don’t do this again. They’ve got a lot of nerve spending your money like this and we’re just as mad as you are”.

- The Solution

The people sobbed and had their eyes patted with public relations kleenex, trustingly nodded their head to the assurance that it wouldn’t happen like that again. AIG actually ended up paying back bonuses and it looked like a victory in favor of the public’s sentiment. Triumphant at last.

Meanwhile the government and media zoomed in on the 165 million dollars of the 170 billion paid last year. That was a a petty 0.097% of the total bailout money given at the time. This helped them ignoring the question of how the rest was being spent. They pretended to scrutinize the hell out of that fraction of money and gave the notion of condemning the use of the funds and all the while there were billions more taxpayer dollars in queue for AIG with no viable measures in place to prevent expenditures such as bonus payouts from happening again.

So it happened again, as expected.

Except this time I haven’t heard of any presidential press conferences of condemnation. In fact, there was never any real condemnation in the first place. It was all just a ploy to make you think your opinion mattered.

Is the Web Making Us Passive?.

Very valuable insights from KRS-One’s presentation at Temple University. Timeless wisdom! Pay attention… this is the essence of hip-hop.

Al Jazeera English – Middle East – Ending female abuse in Jordan.

Earlier this week, I turned on my laptop to get the daily headlines from Democracy Now’s web-based news broadcast. Suddenly, I heard Amy Goodman reporting on the status of American employment nowadays in light of the nation’s recent economic downturn. She began her story by reciting a recent statistic that says one in every six Americans is either unemployed or underemployed. Along with that, she reported a story of a recent shooting that occurred and, while speaking of the gunman, inserted the fact that the gunman recently lost his job insinuating that the source of his rage is his disgruntlement with being laid off. Of course, these two pieces of information – the unemployment and underemployment statistic, and the gunman’s recent loss of his job – were mentioned in the broadcast because the information matters. Amy Goodman would not have mentioned it otherwise. In consideration of those two reports, this is what immediately came to my mind:

 We are financially weak. How come? 

Because of our dependence on being employed by a company to sustain our living and, for some, our sanity. Without getting hired by someone else, the majority of us employed could not survive. If we were to lose our jobs there are likely three predicaments that’d come to light:

1)      We would have no passive income to rely on

2)      We would have no accumulated savings to rely on for six months or more

      3)      We would have no idea how to create our own money and be

            financially self-sufficient

If we all had self-generated income sources other than our jobs to sustain our living it wouldn’t make much of a difference if the impact of unemployment and underemployment reached one in six Americans and the fact of the gunman recently losing his job would most likely not be mentioned. The fact that we don’t is a sign of our financial weakness, our financial dependence, and our general lack of financial education. We need to learn how to make our own money.  

Many of our financial destinies are in the hands of the employers. This fosters over-dependence and weakness since, without employers’ pay, we’d have no financial vitality whatsoever. The extent of our education and self-education in creating our own economic opportunities and determining our own financial destinies is limited or non-existent. It’s evident since, as demonstrated in a wide range of economic news broadcasted reports over the last year, the moment that employers start laying off employees there is a frenzy about how we will sustain our living needs (i.e. utilities, mortgage, food, transportation). Just think the following questions for a moment:

       1)      Would that type of discussion exists if we knew we could create own 

            money and our economic opportunities?

      2)      Would broadcasts, such as the one on Democracy Now, feel as

            inclined to recite statistics of unemployment, underemployment, or

            point out a gunman’s recent job loss to insinuate it being causal of his

            rage?

The answer is no!

If we felt that we had total control of our financial destinies we would care less. Instead of reciting statistics about the percentage of Americans unemployment and underemployed or insinuating connections between job loss and a crazed gunman, we’d be better off reciting ways on how to get our own money irregardless of a job so that we can be more financially autonomous and gaurded from the dire impacts of job loss.

Although being unemployed or underemployed unsatisfactory for many, I bet that most of us would care much less about losing our jobs if we knew we could make our own money.

This is a writing I posted right before President Obama’s Inauguration on my facebook notes. But this deserves a reposting here.

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The Presidential Inauguration, what a momentous occasion! President elect Barack Obama will be granted his official status as president this coming Tuesday, January 20th, in Washington, D.C. The place will be packed with over one million additional people to celebrate the event with three days of festivities. So, put up your shot glasses of sparkling cider and shake it on inauguration day!

And while everyone is enjoying themselves – drinking, dancing the nights away, and growing numb to the worlds’ troubles during festivities – there are many that will not be celebrating. They won’t be taking shots of sparkling cider, dancing and attending parties in their finest garments. Instead, they will be in places of high conflict and war. Places where the front and backyard are battle grounds and entire neighborhoods are livened with the cacophony of shells and artillery. Places where the ostentation of a citywide party isn’t on the agenda, and where “taking shots” has an entirely different ring to it. One of those places is in the Gaza region of the Middle East.

Since January 3rd, the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas has placed the country of Palestine into a humanitarian crisis. In efforts to combat Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has launched all out attacks on Palestinian territory. Shockingly, forty percent of the people they’ve killed have been civilians and thirty-three percent of those killed have been children (as of 14, January).

The United Nations 15 member council has collaborated to agree on a resolution to help put an end to the madness. Of them, only one member decided not to agree on a resolution – the United States. Instead, the USA is choosing to perpetuate old habits and support Israel’s efforts.

Riding on the platform of “change”, President elect Barack Obama and selected Secretary of State Hilary Clinton plan to maintain the tradition of support for Israel. But in the Gaza region, many recognize that the change will not be for them. Instead, things will remain the same as they deal with the struggles of violent conflict where thirty three percent of the targets are children. They will deal with the onslaught of shelling and aerial strikes from the IDF. They know that there will be no change for them because the Obama campaign will perpetuate old habits and take the same position as always, even as Palestinian death tolls accumulate and the humanitarian crises worsen. In response, the United States hasn’t lifted a pen to authorize anything that will cease Israel’s present actions. It also has not followed suit with the UN Security Council member nations in agreeing toward a resolution, thus become the only one of the fifteen member nations not to do so. Furthermore, it has not even verbally condemned the actions of the IDF or taken any stance against it as countries Bolivia and Venezuela have done.

So while everyone is partying the night away embracing the incoming change proposed by the Obama campaign, there are many that will not be as festive. And when everyone sobers up from the euphoria of celebrating, they will realize nothing’s changed for them either.

Concern Grows in the U.S. That the Drug War Is Destablizing Mexico, posted on the blog L’s Word, written by Carolyn Lochhead.

India’s own Google Earth causes security worries, posted on Reuters, written by David Lalmalsawma.