Brazil is targeting its black population for death

A report commissioned by the Brazilian Senate concluded that “the Brazilian state, directly or indirectly, perpetrates the genocide of the young black population.”

Moorbey'z Blog

Black people
BY FRANCE FRANCOIS

A black person is murdered in Brazil every 23 minutes. What’s startling about that statistic — and Brazil’s record-high murder rate, in general — is that it that it is all too often the Brazilian police responsible for killing a generation of black mothers, fathers, future doctors, promising artists and composers — and rising politicians like Marielle Franco. In doing so, they deny Brazil of the human potential, talent and diversity of ideas that transform societies into what they are meant to be.

A report commissioned by the Brazilian Senate concluded that “the Brazilian state, directly or indirectly, perpetrates the genocide of the young black population.” That same government provides Brazil’s hyper-militarized police force with the tools to commit some of the worst human-rights atrocities in South America, routinely uses extrajudicial killings to silence opponents and eradicate enemies.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article95277267.html

More than half of Brazilians identify…

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US Plastic Waste Exports to Developing Countries, Causing Environmental Problems at Home and Abroad

By Joe Sandler Clarke and Emma Howard

Global Research, October 16, 2018

Unearthed 5 October 2018

US plastic waste exports to developing countries in south-east Asia rose dramatically in the first six months of this year, as the international fallout from China’s decision to shut its doors to “foreign trash” continues.

Unearthed can reveal that plastic waste exports from the US to Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam shot up from January to June 2018. But with these southeast Asian countries moving to impose import restrictions and plastic scrap piling up from California to Florida, the US recycling industry is talking about a mounting crisis in the country.

China has historically been the world’s biggest importer of plastic waste, taking in 45% of cumulative imports since 1992, according to a study published this summer. The US sent around 70% of its plastic waste to China and Hong Kong last year. But Beijing’s move to stop importing low quality plastic scrap has forced recyclers in the west to take a long look at their business model. In the UK, figures from the recycling industry have said the sector is “lurching from crisis to crisis”.

US plastic scrap exports dropped by almost a third in the first six months of 2018, as waste firms struggled to find a home for their plastic scrap. From 949,789 metric tonnes (2017) to 666,760 metric tonnes (2018).

An analysis of trade data from the US Census Bureau found that other countries have accepted more plastic scrap.

• In the first six months of 2017, a little over 4,000 metric tonnes of America’s plastic went to Thailand, but the country took in 91,505 metric tonnes of America’s scrap in the same period this year. That’s an increase of 1,985%.
• Malaysia experienced a similar increase, a rise of 273% to 157,299 metric tonnes.
• Vietnam also saw a significant rise, to 71,220 metric tonnes in the first six months of this year.
• Exports to Turkey and South Korea also rose significantly in the same period, to 11,224 metric tonnes and 14,760 metric tonnes, respectively.
• Despite the China ban, Asia remains the main destination for American waste exports. In the first six months of this year, 81% of plastic waste exports from the US went to Asia, a 7% drop on 2017.

Back where it came from

The influx of western rubbish into these countries has forced some to impose restrictions on waste imports.

Earlier this summer, plastic processing factories in Banting, south-west of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur were forced to close because of residents complaining of air and water pollution.

The country’s government announced a new import tax on plastic waste, last week. Malaysia is also tightening requirements on operating permits and is looking to clampdown on illegal processors.

Restrictions have also been introduced in Vietnam. In May, authorities in the country announced a temporary ban on plastic and paper waste imports from the middle of this June until October. Two of the country’s biggest ports – Tan Cang-Cai Mep International and Tan Cang-Cat Lai – have reportedly become overwhelmed with plastic and paper scrap since the China ban came into force.

In Thailand, the influx of trash forced the government to introduce [story in Thai] inspections of all plastics and electronic waste imports into the country. The country’s authorities have also pledged to send waste back to where it came from if it’s imported without proper description. . .

Source: US Plastic Waste Exports to Developing Countries, Causing Environmental Problems at Home and Abroad

Zapatistas and Indigenous peoples mark distance from López Obrador

Zapatistas and indigenous peoples oppose Mexico president Obrador’s continuation of neoliberal policies – eg ratification of Trump’s one-sided Free Trade agreement and continuing use of Mexican military to “respress, dispossess and sow terror.”

Chiapas Support Committee

The EZLN and Indigenous organizations accused López Obrador of continuing neoliberal policy. Photo: Enlace Zapatista.

By: Isaín Mandujano

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS (apro)

The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Indigenous Government Council (CIG) agreed this weekend to realize a consultation with each and every one of the support base communities where they have a presence, to discuss “the incorporation in something larger, which will be capable of incorporating all struggles, thoughts and identities,” in order to confront the continuity of neoliberal policy in which, they accused, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador outlines.

They pointed out that the continuity not only is reflected in his intention to ratify the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and not only that he won’t remove the armed forces from the streets and return them to their barracks, but that he also has “the intention of recruiting…

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From GM Potatoes to Glyphosate: Regulatory Delinquency and Toxic Agriculture

Products with some of the highest levels of glyphosate include granola, oats and snack bars made by leading industry names Quaker, Kellogg’s and General Mills, which makes Cheerios.

Astute News

Food and environment campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason has just produced the report ‘Shockingly high levels of weedkiller found in popular breakfast cereals marketed for British children’. In this 68-page document, she draws from new research in the UK that mirrors findings from the US about the dangerous levels of glyphosate found in food, especially products aimed at children (glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s weedicide Roundup). Readers can access this report here (which contains all relevant references).

Mason begins by reporting on research that significant levels of weedkiller were found in 43 out of 45 popular breakfast cereals marketed to US children. Glyphosate was detected in an array of popular breakfast cereals, oats and snack bars.

Tests revealed glyphosate was present in all but two of the 45 oat-derived products that were sampled by the Environmental Working Group, a public health organisation. Nearly three in four of the products exceeded…

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Sears, The Store That Changed America, Declares Bankruptcy

Sears warned investors last year there was “substantial doubt” it would be able to stay in business. It has lost $11.7 billion since 2010, its last profitable year. Sales have plunged 60% since then. The company shuttered more than 2,800 stores over the past 13 years.

Countz Lifestyle

Sears, the once-dominant retail chain that changed how Americans shopped and lived, has filed for bankruptcy, CNN reports.

The 132-year-old company has been struggling for several years and is drowning in debt. The final straw was a $134 million debt payment due Monday that it could not afford.

Sears Holdings (SHLD), the parent company of Sears and Kmart, is among dozens of prominent retailers to declare bankruptcy in the era of Amazon (AMZN).

The filing in federal bankruptcy court in New York came in the early hours of Monday morning. The company issued a statement saying it intends to stay in business, keeping open stores that are profitable, along with the Sears and Kmart websites.

As of the filing, about 700 stores remained open and the company employed 68,000 workers. That’s down from 1,000 stores with 89,000 employees that it had as recently as February.

But Sears said that it’s…

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How Offshore Tax Havens Enslave the World

The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire

Directed by Michael Oswald (2017)

Film Review

The Spider’s Web is about the network of secret offshore tax havens that has allowed Britain to financially enslave much of the Third World. The film begins by describing the special status of the City of London corporation, a special enclave within greater London that services as Britain’s financial district.

The City of London has a private police force and private courts, Unable to conquer this area of London during the 1066 invasion, William the Conqueror negotiated a treaty making it virtually self-governing.

After an attack on the British pound during and after the 1956 Suez Crisis (see Suez: Britain’s Illegal War Against Egypt), the British government implemented two important measures to stem the hemorrhage of pounds overseas: 1) it temporarily restricted foreign investment and 2) it created a City of London eurodollar market to accept foreign investments in US dollars.

Keen to escape US regulation, US banks flocked to set up international operations in London. At the same time, City of London bankers augmented their eurodollar market by drafting secret and illegal regulations to make the Cayman Islands (still a British colony) a secret haven for tax evasion and money launderers.

Eagerly creating similar offshore havens in Bermuda, Virgin Islands, Jersey and other colonies, by 1997 City of London banks controlled 90% of all international loans via their eurodollar market. The filmmakers blame the creation of this vast offshore banking network for the “financialization” of both the US and UK economies (ie the decision by US/UK banks in the mid-seventies by major US/UK banks  to invest in financial instruments rather than manufacturing).

Africa is the region most heavily exploited by this illegal financial network. Between 1970 and 2008, African elites in cahoots with multinational corporations moved $944 billion in oil, gold, diamond and rare earth revenues into offshore tax havens. This was five times the amount of global debt ($177 billion) Africa owed in 2008.

The most interesting part of the film is an interview with former Chase Manhattan economist Michael Hudson about the State Department approaching him in 1967 for his help setting up a US offshore tax haven to stem the flow of US dollars overseas for Vietnam-related military expenditures.

Should a Collapsing America Just Break Up?

By Umair Haque

Eudaimonia

America is ripping itself apart. So much so that I couldn’t help but notice another strange, gruesome, and bizarre turning point in American collapse today. On the heels of Trump mocking Dr Ford, many famous and powerful right-wing extremists were bellowing, for the first time I can remember, in unison, a shared, loud, and explicit support of real, physical violence — “I love fighting!! What kind of man hasn’t been in a fight? Not a real one, I’ll tell you that!”

Violence is virtuous, healthy, ennobling, in other words. My friends, this is far, far outside the lines of discourse we should expect from a civilized society. These are the kinds of things the sneering thugs and grandees who become the proud lieutenants and captains in the armies of dictators tend to say just before a democracy collapses. So while all that might strike you as inconsequential, I think it’s indicative of a deeper and truer malaise — because, of course, on the heels of the Kavanaugh debacle, it is a justification for the idea that anything should go. But can anything go in a democracy?

Americans don’t agree on two things anymore. Personhood and violence. They don’t agree that all people are people, or should be, or even can be — and therefore, many Americans appear to believe in many or most of the following things. It’s perfectly acceptable to rape women if you can get away with it, it’s perfectly fine to put children in camps, it’s perfectly desirable to suggest, believe, “know that” some groups are inherently superior to others, it’s quite alright to want to ethnically cleanse a society, it’s perfectly healthy to “debate” ideas like authoritarianism and fascism (as if two world wars hadn’t settled the question). Need I go on?

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via Should a Collapsing America Just Break Up?