Dubai Ports World: It's about Money
JOE MAYER
The hysteria, better known as congressional election politics, continues over the management of our ports as a result of the Dubai Ports World purchase. The politicians complaining the loudest on a perceived threat to security are the same people who constantly, past and present, promote "free trade" which leads directly to such purchases of U.S. industry.
Chrysler, Doubleday, Random House, Allied Signal, GTE, Westinghouse, Ralston Purina, Gerber, Amoco are just a trickle of former American-based and -owned corporations that have been consumed by foreign nations. The $700 billion United States trade deficit surrenders that many U.S. dollars for foreign interests to buy America. Each time this occurs, more profits flow out of the U.S. to return for more buy-outs.
"Fast track trade" authority -- turning congressional treaty powers over to monarchical presidents -- does not allow Congress to change or debate any agreement negotiated by the president and offers corporations the opportunity to write the rules. Fast Track, along with GATT, NAFTA, and CAFTA as well as individual trade agreements, set in motion both our trade deficit and this "selling of America." A real security threat from these practices is the selling of America's industrial ability to produce. When President Bush advised, "Go out and shop" to overcome our 9/11 anxiety, it fit perfectly with his corporate trade policy. We are fast becoming a nation of indebted consumers, indebted both as consumers and as a nation.
Also threatening our security is the continuing loss of good middle-class jobs, the loss of labor's voice in public affairs as union jobs become fodder in foreign trade, even loss of human rights as pursuit of profit trumps human needs and spirituality's voice. Possibly the greatest loss is the wrenching of democracy from us by a corporate-ruled world through the WTO, IMF, and World Bank. If, and it's a big if, Congress should temper the Dubai Ports World takeover, look for the United Arab Emirates to approach the World Trade Organization to sue the United States for restraint of trade. At this point our sovereignty, and thus our self-determining democracy will be traded to world corporate control. Many current politicians approved, advocated and sold us out and are determined to continue these trade policies.
Whole sectors of our economy are or are becoming dependent on foreign producers. We're obviously aware of this regarding energy. Only General Motors and Ford in the auto industry remain American-owned and they're moving factories overseas. A few other industries, among many, on which a majority of our reliance is foreign-owned and -controlled include metals mining, database technology, book publishing, rubber production, turbine and power transmission equipment. In the past year over $1 trillion in acquisitions by corporations involved the purchase of companies outside their borders. This was up nearly seventy percent from the previous year.
It's easy for progressives to relate all of this to the causes for which our forefathers revolted. It's now imperial WTO and king Multinational Corporation replacing imperial England and other European tyrannical dynasties. Ironically, what is now happening to the U.S. is just what we've been doing to Third World countries for over a century -- buying their resources, their labor, their infrastructures, and their sovereignty.
It's not about security. It's about money!!!
The hysteria, better known as congressional election politics, continues over the management of our ports as a result of the Dubai Ports World purchase. The politicians complaining the loudest on a perceived threat to security are the same people who constantly, past and present, promote "free trade" which leads directly to such purchases of U.S. industry.
Chrysler, Doubleday, Random House, Allied Signal, GTE, Westinghouse, Ralston Purina, Gerber, Amoco are just a trickle of former American-based and -owned corporations that have been consumed by foreign nations. The $700 billion United States trade deficit surrenders that many U.S. dollars for foreign interests to buy America. Each time this occurs, more profits flow out of the U.S. to return for more buy-outs.
"Fast track trade" authority -- turning congressional treaty powers over to monarchical presidents -- does not allow Congress to change or debate any agreement negotiated by the president and offers corporations the opportunity to write the rules. Fast Track, along with GATT, NAFTA, and CAFTA as well as individual trade agreements, set in motion both our trade deficit and this "selling of America." A real security threat from these practices is the selling of America's industrial ability to produce. When President Bush advised, "Go out and shop" to overcome our 9/11 anxiety, it fit perfectly with his corporate trade policy. We are fast becoming a nation of indebted consumers, indebted both as consumers and as a nation.
Also threatening our security is the continuing loss of good middle-class jobs, the loss of labor's voice in public affairs as union jobs become fodder in foreign trade, even loss of human rights as pursuit of profit trumps human needs and spirituality's voice. Possibly the greatest loss is the wrenching of democracy from us by a corporate-ruled world through the WTO, IMF, and World Bank. If, and it's a big if, Congress should temper the Dubai Ports World takeover, look for the United Arab Emirates to approach the World Trade Organization to sue the United States for restraint of trade. At this point our sovereignty, and thus our self-determining democracy will be traded to world corporate control. Many current politicians approved, advocated and sold us out and are determined to continue these trade policies.
Whole sectors of our economy are or are becoming dependent on foreign producers. We're obviously aware of this regarding energy. Only General Motors and Ford in the auto industry remain American-owned and they're moving factories overseas. A few other industries, among many, on which a majority of our reliance is foreign-owned and -controlled include metals mining, database technology, book publishing, rubber production, turbine and power transmission equipment. In the past year over $1 trillion in acquisitions by corporations involved the purchase of companies outside their borders. This was up nearly seventy percent from the previous year.
It's easy for progressives to relate all of this to the causes for which our forefathers revolted. It's now imperial WTO and king Multinational Corporation replacing imperial England and other European tyrannical dynasties. Ironically, what is now happening to the U.S. is just what we've been doing to Third World countries for over a century -- buying their resources, their labor, their infrastructures, and their sovereignty.
It's not about security. It's about money!!!
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1 Comments:
Oh how true. The so-called paper trail is pretty interesting (and not surprising, quite long). Last week, in an effort to educate my self about the Dubai Port "controversy," I started googling various words (Like dubai, shipping, norton-lilly). What I found was that the whole shipping industry is pretty entwined and that a few people are going to get extremely rich over the sale to Dubai Ports. And of course, Halliburton is a player in all this...check out my blog to see my post on the topic.
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