The Battle of New Orleans is still going on

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Re: Sharks and Sardines

Postby Gouda » Fri Mar 31, 2006 6:14 am

Further study on the fallacy of economic grace trickling down from the sharks to the sardines vis-a-vis "investment":<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Six Myths About the Benefits of Foreign Investment - The Pretensions of Neoliberalism</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>By JAMES PETRAS<br><br>Myth #1 - Foreign Investment (FI) creates new enterprises, gains or expands markets and stimulates new research and <br>development of local technological 'know-how'.<br><br>Myth #2 Foreign invesement increases the export competitiveness of an industry, and stimulates the local economy via secondary and tertiary purchases and sales.<br><br>Myth # 3 Foreign investors provide tax revenue to bolster the local treasury and hard currency earnings to finance imports.<br><br>Myth #4 - Maintaining debt payments is essential to securing financial good standing in international markets and maintaining the integrity of the financial system. Both are crucial to sound development.<br><br>Myth # 5 Most Third World countries depend on foreign investment to provide needed capital for development since local sources are not available or inadequate.<br><br>Myth #6 The proponents of foreign investment argue that its entry serves as an anchor for attracting further investment and serves as a 'pole of development'.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br>Full essay, with explanations, here: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=17547">www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=17547</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>and at Counterpunch. <p></p><i></i>
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Postby Gouda » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:07 pm

It's so bad, that even this ABC report is relatively activist.

Post-Katrina Justice System Remains Shattered
Post-Katrina Justice System Remains Shattered

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2917 ... SFeeds0312

March 1, 2007 — The New Orleans justice system was troubled before Hurricane Katrina, but the storm then washed away records and drove defense lawyers out of town never to return. The cumulative effect was disastrous as defendants stayed stuck in jail as the legal system froze.

Iben O'Neal, 32, languished in a New Orleans jail for a year and a half after his arrest in 2005, without seeing a lawyer, judge or the inside of a courtroom.

"I actually felt like I wasn't going to get out," he told ABC News' Steve Osunsami. "I was lost."

O'Neal was arrested May 19, 2005, on a charge related to simple drug possession. He remained in jail three months later when Hurricane Katrina flooded the courts and the rest of the city. He finally walked out of jail in November 2006, after a group of young lawyers discovered his records and convinced a judge to release him.

"There are a lot of people been in there a couple of years, man, and never been to court," O'Neal said.

(...)

A study commissioned by the Justice Department highlights the issue, noting there are people who have waited in jail on no charges, and trials cannot take place even for defendants who wish to plead guilty.

The report goes on to say that for the "vast majority," primarily the poor, justice is simply "unavailable."

(...)

"When you are locking people away without caring whether they're getting the most basic level of justice, you are not only un-American, it's inhumane," he said.

There is very little money for public defenders, but one parish still spent $5 million to build a temporary facility, and it has requested an additional $57 million to rebuild one jail back to its pre-Katrina size

To many in New Orleans, it seems ridiculous to spend limited money rebuilding jails. O'Neal, who still faces trial, says the city doesn't need any more jails, it needs more justice.
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