We are already too dependent on gambling revenue. If we continue, we will soon be owned by them.
quote by Donald L. Carcieri
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
One-Eighty By Summer
Come on just say it,
You need me like a bad habit,
One that leaves you defenseless, dependent, and alone.
Come on just say it (Are you afraid to),
You need me like a bad habit (Say what you want to, tell me you want to),
One that leaves you defenseless, dependent, and alone (Are you afraid to say what you want to, tell me you want to).
Well I hold my tongue use it to assess,
The damage from way back when it mattered,
But nothing seems important anymore,
Were just protecting ourselves from our self,
And I dont think Ill ever come back down (I dont think Ill ever come back down),
I dont think Ill ever come back down (I dont think Ill ever come back down),
I dont think Ill ever come back down (I dont think Ill ever come back),
I dont think Ill ever come back
Are you ashamed to say what you want to tell me you want to.
Are you ashamed to say what you want to tell me you want to.
(Come on just say it) Are you ashamed to (Come on just say it) say what you want to tell me you want to.
(Come on just say it) Are you ashamed to (Come on just say it) say what you want to tell me you want to.
Im making the difference,
It just seems pointless,
Well Ill be obvious,
Thats got out of focus,
Why cant you just be happy,
Why cant you just be happy.
And I dont think Ill ever come back down (I dont think Ill ever come back down),
I dont think Ill ever come back down (I dont think Ill ever come back down),
I dont think Ill ever come back down (I dont think Ill ever come back),
I dont think Ill ever come back...
(Just come back {over and over, about 15 times})
Just come on just say it,
Come on just say it,
Well Ill just say it,
Ill just say it,
I need you defenseless, dependent and alone.
(Just come back {over and over, about 9 times})
She says live up to your first impression,
Well my best side was your worst invention,
In case you live without the intention,
In case you live without the intention.
(Just come back {over and over, about 8 times})
She says live up to your first impression,
Well my best side was your worst invention,
In case you live without the intention,
In case you live without the intention.
She says live up to your first impression (Come on, just say it),
Well my best side was your worst invention (Come on, just say it),
Why cant you live without the intention (I need you defenseless, dependent),
Why cant you love without the intention (alone).
She says live up to your first impression (I just say it),
Well my best side was your worst invention (I just say it),
[...] Read more
song performed by Taking Back Sunday
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Mommy And Daddy
by Micky Dolenz
M=Micky, C=Coco Dolenz, CR=Control Room (Chip Douglas)
M: ...or we could do...
C: Ha-ha, Micky, just do what they want...
CR: Do, uh, do both of these again...
Well, I'm an angry man, I sing an angry song,
Tell you, honey, it won't be long,
Well, I'll pack my bags, get out of here
With my guitar and a case of beer.
Well I'm going north and I'm going south,
Tell you, honey, better shut your mouth,
Well, I'll kick your head from here to hell,
You better know I can do it well.
Midnight train, rambling, rambling,
All night long I'm gambling, gambling,
Losing all my money, well, it really ain't so funny, hon,
Midnight train, rambling, rambling,
All night long I'm gambling, gambling,
Tell you what baby, well you better be moving on.
Well I really don't know I'm going for sure,
Ain't got a map and it ain't no tour,
I'm just heading out for the open sky,
Who knows, I might even die.
Well, don't you worry your pretty little head,
I never give a damn what I did or said,
That's why I'm packing to leave this place,
Can't stand to look at your cheating face.
Midnight train, rambling, rambling,
All night long I'm gambling, gambling,
Losing all my money, well, it really ain't so funny, hon,
Midnight train, rambling, rambling,
All night long I'm gambling, gambling,
Tell you what baby, well you better be moving on.
Well you treated me like a little boy
And you played around like I was a toy,
Guess you thought I'd have the blues,
Look whose crying, guess you lose.
Midnight train, rambling, rambling,
All night long I'm gambling, gambling,
Losing all my money, well, it really ain't so funny, hon,
Midnight train, r
song performed by Monkees
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Keep Gambling
Keep gambling
As questions
Instinctive living
Memories go blunt
Dark slums
Keep gambling
Survival game
Gets beyond guts
On the street
Dead mother floating
Religious riot
Keep gambling
A small hope of love
Running hiding
Betrayals of friends
Masters and jealousies
Keep gambling
Satire and irony
Hardest reality
Brute law
Third world slum
In urbanity
Away the fantasy
Platoon of dancers
Keep gambling
To find answers
Follow the signs
From the past
As life unravels
Keep gambling
In faith
Nothing as adverse
Nothing so unusual
Broken sword
Of fate
Never let it a chance
To kill
Keep gambling
For life itself
From life itself
11/3/2009
(After watching the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”)
poem by Sadiqullah Khan
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Revolve
I want to crawl inside your womb,
I want to watch the rose on your cheeks bloom.
I want to be the face in the moon,
And watch the stars spin around your room.
All your carefully worded letters,
And your carefully spoken words.
I will continue to evolve,
I will continue to revolve around your sun.
cause you are the only one!...
Who understands who reaches out with both hands.
And even while your fading Im just shivering and waiting.
I will continue to evolve,
I will continue to revolve around your sun.
cause you are the only one!...
I want to drink deep from your well,
I want to be the heart for which you fell.
I want to be a shooting star,
Across the heavens to be where you are.
All your carefully worded letters,
And your carefully spoken words.
I will continue to evolve,
I will continue to revolve around your sun.
cause you are the only one!...
Who understands who reaches out with both hands.
And even while your fading Im just shivering and waiting.
I will continue to evolve,
I will continue to revolve around your sun.
cause you are the only one!...
I want to crawl inside your womb,
I want to watch the rose on your cheeks bloom.
I will continue to evolve,
I will continue to revolve around your sun.
cause you are the only one!...
Who understands who reaches out with both hands.
And even while your fading Im just shivering and waiting.
Who understands who reaches out with both hands.
And even while your fading Im just shivering and waiting.
I will continue to evolve,
I will continue to revolve around your sun.
cause you are the only one!...
Time missing out.
Youre missing out.
Im missing out.
Were missing out.
You are the only one...
Time missing out.
Youre missing out.
Im missing out.
Were missing out.
You are the only one...
song performed by Nine Days
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Buddha at the Bodhi tree (Sri Lanka)
Here, to the oldest living tree
Pilgrims have flown, sailed, crawled and bussed
To feel its shade to know its strength
The world’s not owned but held in trust
It never withers, fresh shoots grow
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Does not apply to such a tree
The world’s not owned but held in trust
Buddha, in this tree’s motherland
Had conquered self and fear and lust
Now every seed the message gives
The world’s not owned but held in trust
Treasures you covet, things possessed
Silver and gold all turn to rust
Others will claim your home, your land
The world’s not owned but held in trust
Your little self’s a puff of smoke
To every living thing be just
Power brings responsibilities
The world’s not owned but held in trust
The fluttering leaves eternal tell
Man’s not immortal, die we must
Live a full life but live it well
The world’s not owned, but held in trust
poem by Sheena Blackhall
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Na Tian Piet's Sha'er Of The Late Sultan Abu Bakar Of Johor
In the name of God, let his word begin:
Praise be to God, let praises clear ring;
May our Lord, Jesus Christ's[8] blessings
Guide my pen through these poetizings!
This sha'er is an entirely new composition
Composed by myself, no fear of imitation.
It's Allah's name, I will keep calling out
While creating this poem to avoid confusion.
This story I'm relating at the present moment
I copy not, nor is it by other hands wrought;
Nothing whatsoever is here laid out
That hereunder is not clearly put forth.
Not that I am able to create with much ease,
To all that's to come I'm yet not accustomed;
Why, this sha'er at this time is being composed
Only to console my heart which is heavily laden.
I'm a peranakan[9], of Chinese origin,
Hardly perfect in character and mind;
I find much that I can not comprehend,
I'm not a man given to much wisdom.
Na Tian Piet[10] is what I go by name
I have in the past composed stories and poems;
Even when explained to - most stupid I remain
The more I keep talking the less I understand.
I was born in times gone by
In the country known as Bencoolen[11];
Indeed, I am more than stupid:
Ashamed am I composing this lay.
Twenty-four years have gone by
Since I moved to the island of Singapore;
My wife and children accompanied me
To Singapore, a most lovely country.
I stayed in Riau[12] for some time
Together with my wife and children;
Two full years in Riau territory,
Back to Singapore my legs carried me.
At the time when Acheh[13] was waging war
I went there with goods to trade,
I managed to sell them at exhorbitant prices:
Great indeed were the profits I made.
[...] Read more
poem by T. Wignesan
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Midnight Train
Now listen just a minute while I sing this song,
Dont you worry baby it wont take long.
Im just about ready to draw the line,
So dont be surprised if I leave this time.
Well Im goin north and Im goin south
Dont want no more of your lyin mouth.
Im hittin the road, gonna ring some bells,
Better know I can do it well.
Chorus:
Midnight train, ramblin ramblin
All night long Im gamblin, gamblin
Been losin all my money and it really is funny, umm badda dum.
Midnight train, ramblin ramblin
Al night Im gamblin, gamblin
Well tell you what baby, well you better be movin on.
Well I really dont know where Im goin for sure,
Aint gotta map, it aint no tour.
Just headin out to the open sky,
Who knows, might even die.
Well dont you worry your pretty little head
cause you never gave a dang what I did or said.
Thats why Im packin to leave this place
Cant stand to look at your cheatin face.
Chorus
Well you treated me like a little boy
And played around like I was a toy.
Guess you thought Id have the blues,
Look whose cryin, guess you lose.
Chorus (twice)
Its about that time, better be movin on
Midnight train (version from missing links, vol. 3)
1: well Im an angry man, I sing an angry song,
Tell you honey it wont be long,
Well Ill pack my bags, get outa here,
With my guitar and a case o beer.
Well Im goin north and Im goin south,
Tell you honey, better shut youre mouth,
Well Ill kick your head from here to hell,
You better know I can do it well.
Chorus: midnight train, ramblin, ramblin,
All night long Im a-gamblin, gamblin,
Losin all my money well it really is funny, hon.
Midnight train, ramblin, ramblin,
All night long Im a-gamblin, gamblin,
Tell you whatn baby well you better be movin on.
2: well I really dont know where Im goin for sure,
Aint got a map, and it aint no tour,
Im just headin out for the open sky,
Who knows? might even die.
Well dont you worry your pretty little head,
[...] Read more
song performed by Monkees
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
My Dependence
I like to be dependent, and so for ever
with warmth and care of my mother
my father , to love, kiss and embrace
wear life happily in all their grace.
I like to be dependent, and so for ever
on my kith and kin, for they all shower
harsh and warm advices, complaints
full wondering ,true and info giants.
I like to be dependent, and so for ever
for my friends, chat and want me near
with domestic,family and romantic tips
colleagues as well , guide me work at risks.
I like to be dependent, and so for ever
for my neighbours too, envy at times
when at my rise of fortune like to hear
my daily steps , easy and odd things too.
poem by Rabindranath Tagore
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
But I also think that it does create a lot of revenue, but to me it's a temporary revenue stream because it's an industry that, if suddenly gambling started in Massachusetts, then a lot of our patrons who would gamble in New Hampshire if we had it, would disappear.
quote by Craig Benson
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
V. Count Guido Franceschini
Thanks, Sir, but, should it please the reverend Court,
I feel I can stand somehow, half sit down
Without help, make shift to even speak, you see,
Fortified by the sip of … why, 't is wine,
Velletri,—and not vinegar and gall,
So changed and good the times grow! Thanks, kind Sir!
Oh, but one sip's enough! I want my head
To save my neck, there's work awaits me still.
How cautious and considerate … aie, aie, aie,
Nor your fault, sweet Sir! Come, you take to heart
An ordinary matter. Law is law.
Noblemen were exempt, the vulgar thought,
From racking; but, since law thinks otherwise,
I have been put to the rack: all's over now,
And neither wrist—what men style, out of joint:
If any harm be, 't is the shoulder-blade,
The left one, that seems wrong i' the socket,—Sirs,
Much could not happen, I was quick to faint,
Being past my prime of life, and out of health.
In short, I thank you,—yes, and mean the word.
Needs must the Court be slow to understand
How this quite novel form of taking pain,
This getting tortured merely in the flesh,
Amounts to almost an agreeable change
In my case, me fastidious, plied too much
With opposite treatment, used (forgive the joke)
To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine,
And, in and out my heart, the play o' the probe.
Four years have I been operated on
I' the soul, do you see—its tense or tremulous part—
My self-respect, my care for a good name,
Pride in an old one, love of kindred—just
A mother, brothers, sisters, and the like,
That looked up to my face when days were dim,
And fancied they found light there—no one spot,
Foppishly sensitive, but has paid its pang.
That, and not this you now oblige me with,
That was the Vigil-torment, if you please!
The poor old noble House that drew the rags
O' the Franceschini's once superb array
Close round her, hoped to slink unchallenged by,—
Pluck off these! Turn the drapery inside out
And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears!
Show men the lucklessness, the improvidence
Of the easy-natured Count before this Count,
The father I have some slight feeling for,
Who let the world slide, nor foresaw that friends
Then proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe,
Would, when the purse he left held spider-webs,
Properly push his child to wall one day!
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Mother's Continue...
Through eternity Mother's continue......
her mother bare her
and mother's continue.....
WE all started out as some mother's baby boy or girl, except for Adam & Eve
mother's continue Adam & Even were created fully grown, that means God
was mother to them.
Mother's continue
babies are still being conceived
Mother's continue.......
Hey Mom I know you've been wounded by life
before
I know you've cried, worried and needed someone to hold you up, pray for you, you will continue....
I thought when you I saw you take you're last breathe Friday July 13,2007 I
would go too, you leaving was hard for me.
Lady Alice Carter I see you when Iook in the mirror
Mother's continue.....
poem by Sylvia Loven Carter
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Casino Queen
Well the money's pouring down and the people all look down,
And it's floating out of town
I hit the second deck and I spend my paycheck,
And my wife that I just met, she's looking like a wreck
Casino Queen, my lord you're mean
I've been gambling like a fiend on your tables so green
I always bet on black, blackjack,
I'll pay you back
The room fills with smoke and I'm already broke,
And the dealer keeps on joking as he takes my last token
Casino Queen, my lord you're mean
I've been gambling like a fiend on your tables so green
Casino Queen, my lord you're mean
I've been gambling like a fiend on your tables so green
song performed by Wilco
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Stagger Lee
The night was clear and the moon was yellow
And the leaves came tumbling down
I was standing on the corner
When I heard my bulldog bark
He was barking up at the two men
Who were gambling in the dark
It was stagger lee and billy
Two men who gambled late
Stagger lee threw a seven
Billy swore, he threw an eight
Stagger lee told billy,
I cant let you get away with that
Well, youve won all my money
And my brand new stetson hat
Stagger lee ran home
Went and got him his 44
Said, Im going to the bar room
Just to pay that debt that I owe
Go stagger lee, go stagger lee
Go stagger lee, go stagger lee
Said, i m going to the bar room
Just to pay that debt that I owe
Stagger lee went to the bar room
Boy, he stood across the bar room doors
Said, now, nobody move
And he pulled out his 44
Stagger lee, cried billy
Oh, please dont you take my life
I got me three little children
And a very sickly wife
Go stagger lee, go stagger lee
Go stagger lee, go stagger lee
Got me three little children
And a very, very sickly wife
Stagger lee shot billy
Boy, he shot that poor boy so bad
That the bullet came thru billy
And went right thru the bartenders glass
While I was standing on the corner
When I heard my bulldog bark
He was barking up at the two men
Who were gambling in the dark
Go stagger lee, go stagger lee
Go stagger lee, go stagger lee
Well, he was barking up at the two men
Who were gambling in the dark
song performed by Neil Diamond
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The King of the Vasse
A LEGEND OF THE BUSH.
MY tale which I have brought is of a time
Ere that fair Southern land was stained with crime,
Brought thitherward in reeking ships and cast
Like blight upon the coast, or like a blast
From angry levin on a fair young tree,
That stands thenceforth a piteous sight to see.
So lives this land to-day beneath the sun,—
A weltering plague-spot, where the hot tears run,
And hearts to ashes turn, and souls are dried
Like empty kilns where hopes have parched and died.
Woe's cloak is round her,—she the fairest shore
In all the Southern Ocean o'er and o'er.
Poor Cinderella! she must bide her woe,
Because an elder sister wills it so.
Ah! could that sister see the future day
When her own wealth and strength are shorn away,
A.nd she, lone mother then, puts forth her hand
To rest on kindred blood in that far land;
Could she but see that kin deny her claim
Because of nothing owing her but shame,—
Then might she learn 'tis building but to fall,
If carted rubble be the basement-wall.
But this my tale, if tale it be, begins
Before the young land saw the old land's sins
Sail up the orient ocean, like a cloud
Far-blown, and widening as it neared,—a shroud
Fate-sent to wrap the bier of all things pure,
And mark the leper-land while stains endure.
In the far days, the few who sought the West
Were men all guileless, in adventurous quest
Of lands to feed their flocks and raise their grain,
And help them live their lives with less of pain
Than crowded Europe lets her children know.
From their old homesteads did they seaward go,
As if in Nature's order men must flee
As flow the streams,—from inlands to the sea.
In that far time, from out a Northern land,
With home-ties severed, went a numerous band
Of men and wives and children, white-haired folk:
Whose humble hope of rest at home had broke,
As year was piled on year, and still their toil
Had wrung poor fee from -Sweden's rugged soil.
One day there gathered from the neighboring steads,
In Jacob Eibsen's, five strong household heads,—
Five men large-limbed and sinewed, Jacob's sons,
[...] Read more
poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Death Of The Middle Class
Oligarchs and Banksters tighten financial screws
In a bold attempt to kill the global Middle Class
Heads of State unable/unwilling to halt this ruse
The “Great Depression of 1929” we soon surpass
ROTMS
By Andrew Gavin Marshall - Global Research
We now stand at the edge of the global financial abyss of a ‘Great Global Debt Depression, ’ where nations, mired in extreme debt, are beginning to implement ‘fiscal austerity’ measures to reduce their deficits, which will ultimately result in systematic global social genocide, as the middle classes vanish and the social foundations upon which our nations rest are swept away. How did we get here? Who brought us here? Where is this road leading? These are questions I will briefly attempt to answer.
At the heart of the global political economy is the central banking system. Central banks are responsible for printing a nation’s currency and setting interest rates, thus determining the value of the currency. This should no doubt be the prerogative of a national government, however, central banks are of a particularly deceptive nature, in which while being imbued with governmental authority, they are in fact privately owned by the world’s major global banks, and are thus profit-seeking institutions. How do central banks make a profit? The answer is simple: how do all banks make a profit? Interest on debt. Loans are made, interest rates are set, and profits are made. It is a system of debt, imperial economics at its finest.
In the United States, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, creating the Federal Reserve System, with the Board located in Washington, appointed by the President, but where true power rested in the 12 regional banks, most notably among them, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The regional Fed banks were private banks, owned in shares by the major banks in each region, which elected the board members to represent them, and who would then share power with the Federal Reserve Board in Washington.
In the early 1920s, the Council on Foreign Relations was formed in the United States as the premier foreign policy think tank, dominated by powerful banking interests. In 1930, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) was created to manage German reparations payments, but it also had another role, which was much less known, but much more significant. It was to act as a “coordinator of the operations of central banks around the world.” Essentially, it is the central bank for the world’s central banks, whose operations are kept ‘strictly confidential.’ As historian Carroll Quigley wrote:
'The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations.'
In 1954, the Bilderberg Group was formed as a secretive global think tank, comprising intellectual, financial, corporate, political, military and media elites from Western Europe and North America, with prominent bankers such as David Rockefeller, as well as European royalty, such as the Dutch royal family, who are the largest shareholders in Royal Dutch Shell, whose CEO attends every meeting. This group of roughly 130 elites meets every year in secret to discuss and debate global affairs, and to set general goals and undertake broad agendas at various meetings. The group was initially formed to promote European integration. The 1956 meeting discussed European integration and a common currency. In fact, the current Chairman of the Bilderberg Group told European media last year that the euro was debated at the Bilderberg Group.
In 1973, David Rockefeller, Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Steering Committee of the Blderberg Group, formed the Trilateral Commission with CFR academic Zbigniew Brzezinski. That same year, the oil price shocks created a wealth of oil money, which was discussed at that years Bilderberg meeting 5 months prior to the oil shocks, and the money was funneled through western banks, which loaned it to ‘third world’ nations desperately in need of loans to finance industrialization.
When Jimmy Carter became President in 1977, he appointed over two dozen members of the Trilateral Commission into his cabinet, including himself, and of course, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was his National Security Adviser. In 1979, Carter appointed David Rockefeller’s former aide and friend, Paul Volcker, who had held various positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Treasury Department, and who also happened to be a member of the Trilateral Commission, as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. When another oil shock took place in 1979, Volcker decided to raise interest rates from 2% in the late 70s, to 18% in the early 80s. The effect this had was that the countries of the developing world suddenly had to pay enormous interest on their loans, and in 1982, Mexico announced it could no longer afford to pay its interest, and it defaulted on its debt, which set off the 1980s debt crisis – collapsing nations in debt across Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia.
It was the IMF and the World Bank came to the ‘assistance’ of the Third World with their ‘structural adjustment programs’, which forced countries seeking assistance to privatize all state owned industries and resources, devalue their currencies, liberalize their economies, dismantle health, education and social services; ultimately resulting in the re-colonization of the ‘Third World’ as Western corporations and banks bought all their assets and resources, and ultimately created the conditions of social genocide, with the spread of mass poverty, and the emergence of corrupt national elites who were subservient to the interests of Western elites. The people in these nations would protest, riot and rebel, and the states would clamp down with the police and military.
In the West, corporations and banks saw rapid, record-breaking profits. This was the era in which the term ‘globalization’ emerged. While profits soared, wages for people in the West did not. Thus, to consume in an economy in which prices were rising, people had to go into debt. This is why this era marked the rise of credit cards fueling consumption, and the middle class became a class based entirely on debt.
In the 1990s, the ‘new world order’ was born, with America ruling the global economy, free trade agreements began integrating regional and global markets for the benefit of global banks and corporations, and speculation dominated the economy.
The global economic crisis arose as a result of decades of global imperialism – known recently as ‘globalization’ – and the reckless growth of– speculation, derivatives and an explosion of debt. As the economic crisis spread, nations of the world, particularly the United States, bailed out the major banks (which should have been made to fail and crumble under their own corruption and greed) , and now the West has essentially privatized profits for the banks, and socialized the risk. In other words, the nations bought the debt from the banks, and now the people have to pay for it. The people, however, are immersed in their own personal debt to such degrees that today, the average Canadian is $39,000 in debt, and students are graduating into a jobless market with tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt that they will never repay. Hence, we are now faced with a global debt crisis.
To manage the economic crisis, the G20 was established as the major international forum for cooperation among the 20 major economies of the world, including the major developing – or emerging – economies, such as India, Brazil, South Africa and China. At the onset of the financial crisis, China and Russia’s central banks began calling for the establishment of a global currency to replace the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency. This proposal was backed by the UN and the IMF. It should be noted, however, that the Chinese and Russian central banks cooperate with the Western central banks through the Bank for International Settlements – which the President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, recently said was the principle forum for “governance of central bank cooperation” and that the G20 is “the prime group for global economic governance.” In 2009, the IMF stated that the BIS “is the central and the oldest focal point for coordination of global governance arrangements.” The President of the European Union, appointed to the position after attending a Bilderberg meeting, declared 2009 as the “first year of global governance.” The 2009 Bilderberg meeting reported on the desire to create a global treasury, or global central bank, to manage the world economy. In 2009, prior to the Bilderberg meeting in fact, the G20 set in motion plans to make the IMF a global central bank of sorts, issuing and even printing its own currency – called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) – which is valued against a basket of currencies. In May of 2010, the IMF Managing Director stated that “crisis is an opportunity, ” and while Special Drawing Rights are a step in the right direction, ultimately what is needed is “a new global currency issued by a global central bank, with robust governance and institutional features.” Thus, we see the emergence of a process towards the formation of a global central bank and a global currency, totally unaccountable to any nation or people, and totally controlled by global banking interests.
In 2010, Greece was plunged into a debt crisis, a crisis which is now spreading across Europe, to the U.K. and eventually to Japan and the United States. If we look at Greece, we see the nature of the global debt crisis. The debt is owed to major European and American banks. To pay the interest on the debt, Greece had to get a loan from the European Central Bank and the IMF, which forced the country to impose ‘fiscal austerity’ measures as a condition for the loans, pressuring Greece to commit social genocide. Meanwhile, the major banks of America and Europe speculate against the Greek debt, further plunging the country into economic and social crisis. The loan is granted, to pay the interest, yet simply has the effect of adding to the overall debt, as a new loan is new debt. Thus, Greece is caught in the same debt trap that re-colonized the Third World.
At the recent G20 meeting in Toronto, the major nations of the world agreed to impose fiscal austerity – or in other words, commit social genocide – within their nations, in a veritable global structural adjustment program. So now we will see the beginnings of the Great Global Debt Depression, in which major western and global nations cut social spending, create mass unemployment by dismantling health, education, and social services. Further, state infrastructure – such as roads, bridges, airports, ports, railways, prisons, hospitals, electric transmission lines and water – will be privatized, so that global corporations and banks will own the entirely of national assets. Simultaneously, of course, taxes will be raised dramatically to levels never before seen. The BIS said that interest rates should rise at the same time, meaning that interest payments on debt will dramatically increase at both the national and individual level, forcing governments to turn to the IMF for loans – likely in the form of its new global reserve currency – to simply pay the interest, and will thus be absorbing more debt. Simultaneously, of course, the middle class will in effect have its debts called in, and since the middle class exists only as an illusion, the illusion will vanish.
Already, towns, cities, and states across America are resorting to drastic actions to reduce their debts, such as closing fire stations, scaling back trash collection, turning off street lights, ending bus services and public transportation, cutting back on library hours or closing them altogether, school districts cutting down the school day, week or year. Simultaneously, this is occurring with a dramatic increase in the rate of privatizations or “public-private partnerships” in which even libraries are being privatized.
No wonder then, that this month, the Managing Director of the IMF warned that America and Europe, in the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, face an “explosion of social unrest.” Just yesterday, Europe experienced a wave of mass protests and social unrest in opposition to ‘austerity measures’, with a general strike in Spain involving millions of people, and a march on the EU headquarters in Brussels of nearly 100,000 people. As social unrest spreads, governments will likely react – as we saw in the case of the G20 in Toronto – with oppressive police state measures. Here, we see the true relevance of the emergence of ‘Homeland Security States’, designed not to protect people from terrorists, but to protect the powerful from the people.
So while things have never seemed quite so bleak, there is a dim and growing beacon of hope, in what Zbigniew Brzezinski has termed as the greatest threat to elite interests everywhere – the ‘global political awakening’. The global political awakening is representative of the fact that for the first time in all of human history, mankind is politically awakened and stirring, activated and aware, and that generally – as Zbigniew Brzezinski explains – generally is aware of global inequalities, exploitation, and disrespect. This awakening is largely the result of the information revolution – thus revealing the contradictory nature of the globalization project – as while it globalizes power and oppression, so too does it globalize awareness and opposition. This awakening is the greatest threat to entrenched elite interests everywhere. The awakening, while having taken root in the global south – already long subjected to exploitation and devastation – is now stirring in the west, and will grow as the economy crumbles. As the middle classes realize their consumption was an illusion of wealth, they will seek answers and demand true change, not the Wall Street packaged ‘brand-name’ change of Obama Inc., but true, inspired, and empowering change.
In 1967, Martin Luther King delivered a speech in which he spoke out against the Vietnam War and the American empire, and he stated that, “It seems as if we are on the wrong side of a world revolution.” So now it seems to me that the time has come for that to change.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) .
poem by Ray Lucero
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Heracles the Lion Slayer
To whom thus spake the herdsman of the herd,
Pausing a moment from his handiwork:
'Friend, I will solve thy questions, for I fear
The angry looks of Hermes of the roads.
No dweller in the skies is wroth as he,
With him who saith the asking traveller nay.
'The flocks Augeas owns, our gracious lord,
One pasture pastures not, nor one fence bounds.
They wander, look you, some by Elissus' banks
Or god-beloved Alpheus' sacred stream,
Some by Buprasion, where the grape abounds,
Some here: their folds stand separate. But before
His herds, though they be myriad, yonder glades
That belt the broad lake round lie fresh and fair
For ever: for the low-lying meadows take
The dew, and teem with herbage honeysweet,
To lend new vigour to the horned kine.
Here on thy right their stalls thou canst descry
By the flowing river, for all eyes to see:
Here, where the platans blossom all the year,
And glimmers green the olive that enshrines
Rural Apollo, most august of gods.
Hard by, fair mansions have been reared for us
His herdsmen; us who guard with might and main
His riches that are more than tongue may tell:
Casting our seed o'er fallows thrice upturn'd
Or four times by the share; the bounds whereof
Well do the delvers know, whose busy feet
Troop to his wine-vats in fair summer-time.
Yea, all these acres wise Augeas owns,
These corn-clad uplands and these orchards green,
Far as yon ledges whence the cataracts leap.
Here do we haunt, here toil, as is the wont
Of labourers in the fields, the livelong day.
But prythee tell me thou-so shalt thou best
Serve thine own interests-wherefore art thou here?
Seeking Augeas, or mayhap some slave
That serves him? I can tell thee and I will
All thou would'st know: for of no churlish blood
Thou earnest, nor wert nurtured as a churl:
That read I in thy stateliness of form;
The sons of heaven move thus among mankind.'
Then answered him the warrior son of Zeus.
'Yea, veteran, I would see the Epean King
Augeas; surely for this end I came.
If he bides there amongst his citizens,
Ruling the folk, determining the laws,
Look, father; bid some serf to be my guide,
[...] Read more
poem by Theocritus
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Choral Leader With a Love
On you they're too dependent,
And that's what you love.
A dependency defended,
And fits like a glove.
On your nerves they irritate,
And you wish from them to get away...
To breathe and celebrate.
But you're the one who picked this tune.
Deciding what is done they do.
On you they're too dependent,
And that's what you love.
A dependency defended,
And fits like a glove.
In harmony with them you choose their solos too.
Trying to convince yourself you've had it and you're through.
A choral leader with a focus only to lead.
With a love to hear the doo wop,
Dropped nonstop.
A choral leader with a focus only to lead.
With a love to hear the doo wop,
Dropped nonstop.
And when the arguments get heated in intensity,
You say you want to pack up and from them you want to leave.
A choral leader with a focus only to lead.
With a love to hear the doo wop,
Dropped nonstop.
A choral leader with a focus only to lead.
With a love to hear the doo wop,
Dropped nonstop.
In harmony with them you choose their solos too.
Trying to convince yourself you've had it and you're through.
And when the arguments get heated in intensity,
You say you want to pack up and from them you want to leave.
On you they're too dependent,
And that's what you love.
A dependency defended,
And fits like a glove.
On your nerves they irritate,
And you wish from them to get away...
[...] Read more
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall
Through the corridors of sleep
Past the shadows dark and deep
My mind dances and leaps in confusion.
I don't know what is real,
I can't touch what I feel
And I hide behind the shield of my illusion.
So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall.
The mirror on my wall
Casts an image dark and small
But I'm not sure at all it's my reflection.
I am blinded by the light
Of God and truth and right
And I wander in the night without direction.
So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall.
It's no matter if you're born
To play the King or pawn
For the line is thinly drawn 'tween joy and sorrow,
So my fantasy
Becomes reality,
And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow.
So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall.
song performed by Paul Simon
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall
Through the corridors of sleep
Past shadows dark and deep
My mind dances and leaps in confusion
I don't know what is real
I can't touch what I feel
And I hide behind the shield of my illusion
So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall
The mirror on my wall
Casts an image dark and small
But I'm not sure at all it's my relfection
I am blinded by the light
Of God and truth and right
And I wander in the night without direction
So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall
No matter if you're born
To play the King or pawn
For the line is thinly drawn 'tween joy and sorrow
So my fantasy
Becomes reality
And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow
So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall
song performed by Simon & Garfunkel
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Prostye Dvizheniya
I continue simple moves
You continue my continuations
I am you, and you are me
I repeat, you repeat.
If you want -be silent,
Wait until it stops.
If you want keys,
2 turns around
If you want yours,
If you want somebody's,
If you want be like me
And I continue
Simple moves, I continue...
Simple moves..
We continue simple moves
Destroying irrigation.
Somewhere you find,
Somewhere you lose
I repeat, you repeat.
This is love,
Springs are jumping.
Tomorrow everyone
Can be smaller then snowflake.
We have to be on time
Not refusing.
We should be able
Continue to live.
Simple moves, continuing to live...
Simple moves...
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you?
Simple moves...
song performed by Tatu
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!