What does it mean when people misinterpret your intentions and you don't try to correct them?
Disappointment that they can't really understand what you're thinking?
When you feel like you should say something, but don't because you're unsure of whether or not they need space?
When they're still angry the next day because they read too much in your intentions?
Can you say "I don't know what you're talking about"?
Are you just afraid that they'll lash out at you? Or that they wouldn't believe you?
Does it mean that you're a coward?_
Know you place. If it has become habitual, anything else will seem out of character.
So trying to be nice is a bad thing?
If you've always kept your distance and suddenly you try to be a close friend, what kind of reaction do you expect?
... I felt pity? No, I transposed my own sadness and misread the original emotion.
You can't stand the feeling of being despised, but you believe that you shouldn't force people into arguments if they would rather avoid them. Are you really doing it for their sake?
Even if I'm the one who misread in the first place, is it all right for me to tell them that they were wrong? How do I prove that my words really had no double meaning?
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Crewman's Log
Oh dear. A blast from the past. I totally described the secene, I can feel it so well. Making me nostalgic.
I’m sitting on the main staysail, a triangle sail currently all bundled up on top of the classroom, I’d been working for 10 minutes on POLS 2783, a daunting prospect. But hell, I’m sitting on a sail, on top of a classroom on a 180 foot tall twinmast sailing yacht. *Dinkle*’s soaked pants are still drying on the Foremast shrouds on portside, which makes me smile, or at least smile more then when they were hung up in the 9-man yesterday, and I had to take them down.
The Bosun is working with a staysail sheet, Aaron is on the bridge, drinking out of a Nalgene bottle with two hands, Algis is sitting on the stern stairs, keeping lookout. We’re on a Run, yards square, apparently still heading northwest on Starboard tack, towards Columbia.
Mike doesn’t mind me sitting here, he’s not going to set the sail yet. I can hear people chatting in Discovery B class through the open portholes, the sound is at least as loud as the waves crashing around me, it surrounds me, and for a moment I’m entranced in the noise.
The Forecourse was luffing just now, Morgan must have steered off course. Or it could be because of one of the buntlines, it’s stuck and too windy for us to fix it while the sail is set. The masts creak, pushed by the wind, and the blocks whine as they undulate under the constant rocking.
Hmm… The wind seems to have picked up. Or maybe I’m just imagining it, but it does look like the waves are just a bit bigger now. No- they definitely are, which means that helming must be a pain (helming on a run is always a pain, it’s like trying to balance a book on a sowing needle.)
This of course, reminds me of the time I went up the bowsprit while they were setting the outer, to unjam some rope that had gotten caught. On the way down, I nearly got ko-ed by a widowmaker, but a timely reflex made my hand catch it just before it connected with my face. Most fortunate.
The cook just called out. Looks like he caught a fish. If it’s big, we might have raw fish paste for breakfast; a tasty spread for toast, and that is good since the Nutella supply has run out.
I should really get back to work now though.
Feb 27th, 09
gab
I’m sitting on the main staysail, a triangle sail currently all bundled up on top of the classroom, I’d been working for 10 minutes on POLS 2783, a daunting prospect. But hell, I’m sitting on a sail, on top of a classroom on a 180 foot tall twinmast sailing yacht. *Dinkle*’s soaked pants are still drying on the Foremast shrouds on portside, which makes me smile, or at least smile more then when they were hung up in the 9-man yesterday, and I had to take them down.
The Bosun is working with a staysail sheet, Aaron is on the bridge, drinking out of a Nalgene bottle with two hands, Algis is sitting on the stern stairs, keeping lookout. We’re on a Run, yards square, apparently still heading northwest on Starboard tack, towards Columbia.
Mike doesn’t mind me sitting here, he’s not going to set the sail yet. I can hear people chatting in Discovery B class through the open portholes, the sound is at least as loud as the waves crashing around me, it surrounds me, and for a moment I’m entranced in the noise.
The Forecourse was luffing just now, Morgan must have steered off course. Or it could be because of one of the buntlines, it’s stuck and too windy for us to fix it while the sail is set. The masts creak, pushed by the wind, and the blocks whine as they undulate under the constant rocking.
Hmm… The wind seems to have picked up. Or maybe I’m just imagining it, but it does look like the waves are just a bit bigger now. No- they definitely are, which means that helming must be a pain (helming on a run is always a pain, it’s like trying to balance a book on a sowing needle.)
This of course, reminds me of the time I went up the bowsprit while they were setting the outer, to unjam some rope that had gotten caught. On the way down, I nearly got ko-ed by a widowmaker, but a timely reflex made my hand catch it just before it connected with my face. Most fortunate.
The cook just called out. Looks like he caught a fish. If it’s big, we might have raw fish paste for breakfast; a tasty spread for toast, and that is good since the Nutella supply has run out.
I should really get back to work now though.
Feb 27th, 09
gab
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Endless Eight
In my opinion, is a stroke of genius.
But first, a resume: The Endless Eight is a story arc occuring in the second season to the infamous anime "The melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" In this arc, which lasts 8 episodes, the characters realize that they have been trapped in a time loop that resets their world to the second half of august before september rolls around. The viewer is thus subjected to 8 consecutive episodes of the same storyline, until finally, after many failures, the main characters are finally able to break the cycle.
This arc elicited a violent reaction amongst anime fans, but, as I said, from the perspective of an art student, it is a stroke of genius. The "Endless Eight" has acheived a timeless infamy by doing something that no other series has or probably will ever dare do. Incidentally, some enraged fans have decided that this is a product of laziness or lack of ideas on the producer's part. As an art student, however, I believe that this decision was premeditated and most likely very deliberate.
1.Every episode, though sharing the same plot, is entirely re-animated, the backgrounds are redone in many of the scenes, the voice acting presents subtle but noticeable differences in tone and speech, etc etc.
2.Nevertheless the Endless Eight is incredibly boring. It is a stroke of genius in the sense that no other anime that I know of has attempted to remove itself from the usual plot driven story to this extent. I do believe that the piece functions better as an art piece (with all it's strangeness) than as an anime. This is great, since the producers do not attempt to use recycled material to get away with working less.
3. Fans misunderstand that the studio was in fact, trying to make the E8 into an interesting retelling of the same story, but this has already been done. I believe that the original purpose was to create, within the viewer, a sense of expectancy - viewers half remembering the exact lines used by characters throughout the show, to the point that upon listening to the track of the 8th episode, they would be surprised when noticing that the story is written, in fact, very differently compared to the others.
4.The E8 also acts as a kind of social commentary, if one pays attention to the complaints of angry fans and to the general direction that the industry is has taken. Fans demand good series, and when they are dissapointed, they voice their opinions with ravenous, single-minded reasoning. But enough. The E8 proved to me that a large population of the anime fanbase has become, unwittingly, dependant on the manufactured stories that pollute the net. Not to say that originality does not receive praise - fans are particularly pleased when something new is well done - but they will curse and swear and promise to abandon a series if something too new does not fit the accepted standard of normality.
5. In other words, fans operate on a parabolla which is more or less highest when something is moderately different and original and lowest when something is extreme. Manufactured anime. The problem is that most studios listen to their fans, and so if normalcy is what is expected, then the anime world is liable to go towards the mainstream and never return.
6.Of course, if E8 is a work of art, then I am the viewer, because I am viewing both the show and the reactions of others to the show, which is interesting in and of itself. However, I am deeply reconnassant of the production staff for not half assedly trying for 4 or 5 episodes of the same deal, and definitely not for 2. For E8 to function as a art piece, it must keep going until all but the insanest - and this is why I like the idea, anime fans are driven away by it's weirdness by industry standards. Art students, however, usually hate the concept of an industry standard, even when they themselves emulate it. Also, such a thing as deliberately inducing boredom and anger is incredibly interesting to witness and experience.
All things considered, I will never forget the E8. If a studio's purpose is to become known, in that case Haruhi does the very best in advertising itself - and in the media industry, it is known that negative advertising is still advertising. I never would have guessed though, that some fools would actually drop a show in a fit of revenge towards the producers. For my part, I'm streaming it online from the translated version, and so I'm not paying the producers didily squat. So I'll spare them the useless ranting. I think I'll go and buy it, because I like the idea and the shelves are likely still full, and because of it's value as an art piece. Obtaining documentation of actual performance art/ sound art/ video art is inredibly difficult or illegal, as often only a few copies are made.
But first, a resume: The Endless Eight is a story arc occuring in the second season to the infamous anime "The melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" In this arc, which lasts 8 episodes, the characters realize that they have been trapped in a time loop that resets their world to the second half of august before september rolls around. The viewer is thus subjected to 8 consecutive episodes of the same storyline, until finally, after many failures, the main characters are finally able to break the cycle.
This arc elicited a violent reaction amongst anime fans, but, as I said, from the perspective of an art student, it is a stroke of genius. The "Endless Eight" has acheived a timeless infamy by doing something that no other series has or probably will ever dare do. Incidentally, some enraged fans have decided that this is a product of laziness or lack of ideas on the producer's part. As an art student, however, I believe that this decision was premeditated and most likely very deliberate.
1.Every episode, though sharing the same plot, is entirely re-animated, the backgrounds are redone in many of the scenes, the voice acting presents subtle but noticeable differences in tone and speech, etc etc.
2.Nevertheless the Endless Eight is incredibly boring. It is a stroke of genius in the sense that no other anime that I know of has attempted to remove itself from the usual plot driven story to this extent. I do believe that the piece functions better as an art piece (with all it's strangeness) than as an anime. This is great, since the producers do not attempt to use recycled material to get away with working less.
3. Fans misunderstand that the studio was in fact, trying to make the E8 into an interesting retelling of the same story, but this has already been done. I believe that the original purpose was to create, within the viewer, a sense of expectancy - viewers half remembering the exact lines used by characters throughout the show, to the point that upon listening to the track of the 8th episode, they would be surprised when noticing that the story is written, in fact, very differently compared to the others.
4.The E8 also acts as a kind of social commentary, if one pays attention to the complaints of angry fans and to the general direction that the industry is has taken. Fans demand good series, and when they are dissapointed, they voice their opinions with ravenous, single-minded reasoning. But enough. The E8 proved to me that a large population of the anime fanbase has become, unwittingly, dependant on the manufactured stories that pollute the net. Not to say that originality does not receive praise - fans are particularly pleased when something new is well done - but they will curse and swear and promise to abandon a series if something too new does not fit the accepted standard of normality.
5. In other words, fans operate on a parabolla which is more or less highest when something is moderately different and original and lowest when something is extreme. Manufactured anime. The problem is that most studios listen to their fans, and so if normalcy is what is expected, then the anime world is liable to go towards the mainstream and never return.
6.Of course, if E8 is a work of art, then I am the viewer, because I am viewing both the show and the reactions of others to the show, which is interesting in and of itself. However, I am deeply reconnassant of the production staff for not half assedly trying for 4 or 5 episodes of the same deal, and definitely not for 2. For E8 to function as a art piece, it must keep going until all but the insanest - and this is why I like the idea, anime fans are driven away by it's weirdness by industry standards. Art students, however, usually hate the concept of an industry standard, even when they themselves emulate it. Also, such a thing as deliberately inducing boredom and anger is incredibly interesting to witness and experience.
All things considered, I will never forget the E8. If a studio's purpose is to become known, in that case Haruhi does the very best in advertising itself - and in the media industry, it is known that negative advertising is still advertising. I never would have guessed though, that some fools would actually drop a show in a fit of revenge towards the producers. For my part, I'm streaming it online from the translated version, and so I'm not paying the producers didily squat. So I'll spare them the useless ranting. I think I'll go and buy it, because I like the idea and the shelves are likely still full, and because of it's value as an art piece. Obtaining documentation of actual performance art/ sound art/ video art is inredibly difficult or illegal, as often only a few copies are made.
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Real Folk Blues Part 1 and 2
These are the memorable lines from the finale of the wondrous Cowboy Bebop, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and written by Keiko Nobumoto.
The Real Folk Blues (Part 1)
Vicious: Don't forget, a snake's venom poisons slowly after the bite.
Faye: It might be good to pair up with another woman. How about it? Wanna partner up?
Jet: Men only think of their past right before their death, as if they were searching frantically for proof that they were alive.
- Vicious: ... And you will shed tears of scarlet
- Jet: Hey Spike have you ever heard this story?
- Spike: Huh?
- Jet: There was a man who was injured on a hunt. The man had no means to treat the wounds and his leg began to rot and death approaches. In the last moments of his life a rescue helicopter picks him up and rushes him to the hospital. As the helicopter flies the man looks outside the window seeing white capped mountains glistening in the sunlight and he thought "That's where I was going" ... I hate that story. Men only think of their past right before their death, as if they were searching frantically for proof that they were alive.
The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)
- Vicious: 'You will shed tears of scarlet.' or 'You will shed crimson tears.'
- Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn't really care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn't come back to life.
- Jet: Yeah. That's a good story.
- Spike: I hate that story.
- Jet: Huh?
- Spike: I never liked cats, you know that.
- Jet Oh yeah.
- Bull: Do not fear Death. Death is always at our side. When we show fear, it jumps at us faster than light. But, if we do not show fear, it casts its eye upon us gently and then guides us into infinity...
- Vicious: A beast that has lost its place. He has nowhere to return to now. He will come.
- Spike: Look at these eyes. One of them is a fake, because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I have seen the past in one eye, and the present in the other. I had believed that what I saw was not all of reality...
- Spike: I'm not going there to die. I'm going to see if I am really alive.
- Vicious: I told you before, Spike. I'm the only one who can kill you and set you free.
- Spike: Those words apply to you as well, Vicious. Either way, it's going to end here.
- Spike: Julia is dead. Let's finish it now.
- Vicious: As you wish.
- Spike: [Points his finger like a gun] Bang. [And finally, Spike falls, and farewell]
- Julia: [Dying] It's all a dream.
- Spike: Yeah, just a bad dream.
- Ending: YOU'RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
So Think Globally Before You Decide It's Cool To Wear Nike
LLong live corporations.
Here's more on Culture Jamming , which is what this ad does. And stop buying Nike shit. Nike is shit.
I've been having this inspiration to change the world, isn't that funny? Modestly, Passez-au-Suivant style. I'll bet anyone 100$ it'll work in the end. I'd also like to do a bunch of posters, adbusters style. But I'd label it as art. Ambitious things, like hacking some major website and modifying it to show some kind of anti-consumerist message. Do you know how many people go through google in 5 minutes? Or giant word art, like "Private Property Created Crime", for everyone to see, defacing the name of these indestructible giants we live in the shadow of. Hahaha.
But man, has anyone thought about it? My name. It's so funny, that I decided on that penname, for a totally unrelated reason, because it sounded cool, and yet it relates so well to that. It's like it was made for this purpose, to spearhead some kind of change, and see where that goes. Hahaha. Dreams are nice. Believing in them and acting on those beliefs may be nicer still.
Friday, April 2, 2010
The Ways To Change A World Part 2
... You know, I became a vegetarian. Not a real one, no, I like meat, but I decided, after watching a presentation of a classmate on the horrors of the meat industry, both at the business, the worker and the stock level, to never again buy store bought beef and pork. And I haven't. Not once. I eat fish and eggs. You see, I've known for a long time about these problems, but they were always too distant for me to care, too immaterial in my eyes. I never questioned, never argued, because it was simpler to not think about where my meat came from, where my water comes from, where my gas came from. I never questioned. I NEVER CARED.
Well, now I do. I care because I've discovered a simple and undefeatable trick to make a difference. These companies, these governments, they are actually quite powerless against the united front of the citizens they serve. If we were to all look at them, simultaneously, and stare them down in silence, they would crumble. But because we don't, because we think them too big to be taken down, because we've never thought of all at once rising up in silent protest, we've been living in this dream world of comfort, and ease, eyes closed to the silent screams, ignoring reality like we we're actually in some kind of capitalist Matrix. Sadly, the world I see isn't far off from that.
So this is my undefeatable trick; I'll just reject them. Refuse to support conduct, attitudes and values that clash with my own. I'll boycott everything that pisses me off, everything I disagree with, everything I feel needs to change. I'll send back the flyers with a picture of my middle finger. What'll the corporate world do then, when the people decide to kill off the companies just like that ? I don't like how they make cheap meat, so I won't buy any. I don't like how they make Nike shoes, Wall-Marde clothes, how they shoot greenhouse gases and other kinds of shit in the atmosphere, the water. I don't like how they cut down forests and pretend to plant them, I don't like this decandence, how people go by ignorantly doing things the easy way, without a care in the world. I don't like how they hunt whales for sushi without a care in the world. They hunt them with rocket propelled crossbows. Rocket propelled crossbows.
You know, if every human being banned together in quiet rebellion, in a month we could make a company like Nike close down. A month of empty stores and full factories, 0 cents in sales worldwide and every employee on time for his shift and his salary. Like this, the trash could literally take itself out. Do you know why the world is as it is? Because we demanded cheap meat, cheap clothes, cheap toys, houses, etc. Because WE, the consumers, the ones with all the buying power, asked for it. Hunted down deals, bought things the easy way so we could save and have our comforts. Having no choice, the corporations complied, sacrificing whatever so that they could survive. And they became incredibly good at it, better than we could have thought. Well, what if now we demanded that they fix up? What would they do, when faced with bankruptcy? Would they change? They would have to, no? It's not like they would all just die - humans don't like dying, nor do their companies.
Too long have I lived with my eyes shut. 18 years. And I think that's enough. I'm not altruistic enough to go out of my way to find scandals to rebel against. I'll eat beef if someone else puts it on a table at a party. I'll take the clothes if its a present. But I'll make sure the person who gave it to me knows what I think. I don't think it's possible to convert others, but maybe they too will see that what I'm doing isn't far fetched, and they too will start to believe in something better. I won't say that I'm only going to do my share, but I won't say that it's my responsibility to take up everything myself either. I'm just one human being. And if I can't stop those old fools from doing what they're doing, that's fine too. Death will take us all just the same. But the old ways will fall and give way to the new, no matter how long it takes. I have faith, and that's enough of a reason for me to do what I can, and dream of a better world. Neil Gaiman writes that a mere 1000 dreamers can shape the world. I wonder... if a mere 1000 of us dreamed the same dream, all at once, what kind of solidarity could we conjure? What kind of change could we enact?
Maybe, we really could... change this world.
Well, now I do. I care because I've discovered a simple and undefeatable trick to make a difference. These companies, these governments, they are actually quite powerless against the united front of the citizens they serve. If we were to all look at them, simultaneously, and stare them down in silence, they would crumble. But because we don't, because we think them too big to be taken down, because we've never thought of all at once rising up in silent protest, we've been living in this dream world of comfort, and ease, eyes closed to the silent screams, ignoring reality like we we're actually in some kind of capitalist Matrix. Sadly, the world I see isn't far off from that.
So this is my undefeatable trick; I'll just reject them. Refuse to support conduct, attitudes and values that clash with my own. I'll boycott everything that pisses me off, everything I disagree with, everything I feel needs to change. I'll send back the flyers with a picture of my middle finger. What'll the corporate world do then, when the people decide to kill off the companies just like that ? I don't like how they make cheap meat, so I won't buy any. I don't like how they make Nike shoes, Wall-Marde clothes, how they shoot greenhouse gases and other kinds of shit in the atmosphere, the water. I don't like how they cut down forests and pretend to plant them, I don't like this decandence, how people go by ignorantly doing things the easy way, without a care in the world. I don't like how they hunt whales for sushi without a care in the world. They hunt them with rocket propelled crossbows. Rocket propelled crossbows.
You know, if every human being banned together in quiet rebellion, in a month we could make a company like Nike close down. A month of empty stores and full factories, 0 cents in sales worldwide and every employee on time for his shift and his salary. Like this, the trash could literally take itself out. Do you know why the world is as it is? Because we demanded cheap meat, cheap clothes, cheap toys, houses, etc. Because WE, the consumers, the ones with all the buying power, asked for it. Hunted down deals, bought things the easy way so we could save and have our comforts. Having no choice, the corporations complied, sacrificing whatever so that they could survive. And they became incredibly good at it, better than we could have thought. Well, what if now we demanded that they fix up? What would they do, when faced with bankruptcy? Would they change? They would have to, no? It's not like they would all just die - humans don't like dying, nor do their companies.
Too long have I lived with my eyes shut. 18 years. And I think that's enough. I'm not altruistic enough to go out of my way to find scandals to rebel against. I'll eat beef if someone else puts it on a table at a party. I'll take the clothes if its a present. But I'll make sure the person who gave it to me knows what I think. I don't think it's possible to convert others, but maybe they too will see that what I'm doing isn't far fetched, and they too will start to believe in something better. I won't say that I'm only going to do my share, but I won't say that it's my responsibility to take up everything myself either. I'm just one human being. And if I can't stop those old fools from doing what they're doing, that's fine too. Death will take us all just the same. But the old ways will fall and give way to the new, no matter how long it takes. I have faith, and that's enough of a reason for me to do what I can, and dream of a better world. Neil Gaiman writes that a mere 1000 dreamers can shape the world. I wonder... if a mere 1000 of us dreamed the same dream, all at once, what kind of solidarity could we conjure? What kind of change could we enact?
Maybe, we really could... change this world.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Ways To Change A World Part 1
I've been digging around in the trash for too long now. Way too long. There's so much trash, everywhere, and there's more and more as you go up.. It starts in the clothing industry, which practically employs slaves... well, This Jon Raymond guy says it better.
In china, they're paid from 6 cents to 14 cents an hour, work seven days a week, and are housed in dormitories and kept under 24 hour surveillance. In Haiti's assempbly plants, they earn 28 cents an hour, are harassed and raped by their male bosses and feed their babies with sugar water because they can't afford milk. In Guatemala's sweatshops, they're beaten to work faster, and everywhere they're fired or threatened with the loss of their jobs if they protest or try to organize a union.
And then, illegal dumping of biowaste in water. The japanese hunting endagered whales for high profit in the food industry. War in africa, ignored. Human trafficking, ignored. Child prostitution, ignored. Countries with shitty laws, left alone because of this fucking to-each-his-own system. World leaders with the right ideals but the wrong actions. The petrol industry buying out technological advancements in waste free energy to profit from gas sales. Mercenaries and rogue governments fighting equally corrupt rebels loose in central africa. Corrupt governance left alone because of political reasons - like Motubu, the CIA sponsored and now exiled leader of Congo, who eloped with 17 or something billion dollars in the 90s. The world trade, the IMF loaning money to countries like Congo, who have no means of ever repaying their debts. The IMF, sometimes handing out partial debt forgiveness, but always demanding ridiculously constraining reforms before they actually do anything, reforms that, like in Tanzania, do more bad than good for the common folk, forcing the country to take away public services like free education, and forcing them to up strict regimens and raise taxes so that the economic structure looks like that of a developped country, but without the infrastructure to support itself.
And then of course, if Tanzania has free education despite being an impoverished country crumbling under debt, why are we, fat and vain citizens of the West, not complaining? And where is our tax money, our efforts, going? Local businesses in hunt of profit close down and outsource to mexico where the work is cheap, leaving thousands unemployed. Harper siding with the MNC's and america, selling off our soil and implementing programs that help along the international corporations at the expense of small, local businesses, which in any and all industries, are crushed in the competition and have to close shop? WHAT-THE-FUCK-IS-GOING-ON?
In china, they're paid from 6 cents to 14 cents an hour, work seven days a week, and are housed in dormitories and kept under 24 hour surveillance. In Haiti's assempbly plants, they earn 28 cents an hour, are harassed and raped by their male bosses and feed their babies with sugar water because they can't afford milk. In Guatemala's sweatshops, they're beaten to work faster, and everywhere they're fired or threatened with the loss of their jobs if they protest or try to organize a union.
And then, illegal dumping of biowaste in water. The japanese hunting endagered whales for high profit in the food industry. War in africa, ignored. Human trafficking, ignored. Child prostitution, ignored. Countries with shitty laws, left alone because of this fucking to-each-his-own system. World leaders with the right ideals but the wrong actions. The petrol industry buying out technological advancements in waste free energy to profit from gas sales. Mercenaries and rogue governments fighting equally corrupt rebels loose in central africa. Corrupt governance left alone because of political reasons - like Motubu, the CIA sponsored and now exiled leader of Congo, who eloped with 17 or something billion dollars in the 90s. The world trade, the IMF loaning money to countries like Congo, who have no means of ever repaying their debts. The IMF, sometimes handing out partial debt forgiveness, but always demanding ridiculously constraining reforms before they actually do anything, reforms that, like in Tanzania, do more bad than good for the common folk, forcing the country to take away public services like free education, and forcing them to up strict regimens and raise taxes so that the economic structure looks like that of a developped country, but without the infrastructure to support itself.
And then of course, if Tanzania has free education despite being an impoverished country crumbling under debt, why are we, fat and vain citizens of the West, not complaining? And where is our tax money, our efforts, going? Local businesses in hunt of profit close down and outsource to mexico where the work is cheap, leaving thousands unemployed. Harper siding with the MNC's and america, selling off our soil and implementing programs that help along the international corporations at the expense of small, local businesses, which in any and all industries, are crushed in the competition and have to close shop? WHAT-THE-FUCK-IS-GOING-ON?
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