Geneofisis,Thanks for inviting me to anaylze the "Restore Africa MegaCities 2020 & beyond Playlist with you, had to watch it all and really reflect deeply about the implications of what I was watching, Hoping many others will do the same.Geneofisis wrote:Date: Mar 23, 2009TECHNOLOGY ISN'T THE PROBLEMIT'S THE PEOPLE'S MENTALITY.We need to stop thinking about myself first. Self hate leads to segregation. Black people have lost true love for each other and that is why we are having soooooo many problems. We need to come back into the real purpose of who and what we are and get out of our own way. Then and only will we have true liberation."From: ngoneaTo: GeneofisisSubject: Re:"RESTORE AFRICA" MEAGA CITIES 2020 & BEYONDYou make a very good point, and I think this article below gives even more insight into the situation, hope you have time to check it out. Just substitute Japan, China, Europe and any Nation in Africa or any other exploited country, or people kept purposely underdevleoped on the planet.The article breaks it down, I cut and pasted in the middle of the article where I felt it had relevance to your video Playlist. "Restore Africa" Mega Cities 2020This article says it all,, it historically sums up the danger of exporting "CASINO CAPITALISM" to "Restore Africa"This was very educational.
Orignal Afrticle:http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/fiyouzat140805.html
THE QUESTION BECOMES; RESTORE AFRICA FOR WHO?
FATEFUL FORMATIONSFrom the inception of its "opening" to the West (the Meiji Restoration of 1868),Japan began to embrace not only the socio-economic relations of capitalism andthe intellectual school of rationalist (and technological) enlightenment that represented the best of the West. But, through a very astute study, Japan understood clearly the political and not so enlightened underpinnings of this new economy. War and imperialism, as discerned clearly by the Meiji reformists, were the primary factors that rendered possible the very conditions for thespread of this capitalist world system. In this new world system, there were nooptions for playing the role of innocent bystanders; you either pillaged others, or got pillaged.Jon Halliday, in his book A Political History of Japanese Capitalism, has shownthat, from the beginning of the capitalist transformation of Japan, her rulingclasses were aware that the development of their modernity required everincreasing use of ancient methods of warfare, outright plunder, and subjugationof colonies in one form or another. So, from the early days of theirmodernizing, the Japanese rulers studied not only the Western countries' modernsciences and philosophies and manufacturing and management methods but also themyriad aspects of colonial administration.And the Japanese rulers put their studies to use. In Manchuria, they adopted acolonial rule-by-proxy method, while in Korea and Taiwan annexation was thepreferred tool. In places like China where there were colonial rivalries thatpit various European powers against each other or against the US, Japan wouldexploit those divisions.It is also important to bear in mind that Japan is a country infamously poor inits own sources of energy as well as raw materials such as metals and minerals.As stated by Halliday, "The lack of raw material in Japan and the pressureapplied against Japan by the unequal treatise led to the delay in thedevelopment of a heavy industrial base. But as the unequal treaties were revisedand Japan engaged in expansion, a heavy industrial base became a vitalnecessity, particularly to cope with the large military building program.Clearly, Japan could not continue to have its navy built in England."But this expansionist urge was not fueled merely by the need for raw materials.The need for the acquisition of colonies was integral to the development ofcapitalism per se in Japan. "Politically, the Meiji oligarchs were content witha rural and rural-based policy. The compromise between the feudal lords and thebourgeoisie did not allow the latter to destroy the medieval structure ofagriculture. Colonization was one way to reduce the contradictions betweenindustry and the preservation of feudal relics in the economy as a whole."2The first Japanese assaults on China, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, at atime when European powers had (for about forty years) been attempting to carveout various parts of China, led to a strategic alliance with Britain, signed in1902 (which lasted until the conclusion of the Washington Conference in 1922).The alliance was beneficial to England, since it provided her with a key allywith its own motives to move against Russia, a historical enemy of Britain,since Russia had its own designs on Manchuria and therefore was a strategicenemy of Japan.3This alliance with Britain in turn paved the way for the Russo-Japanese War of1904-05, in which Japan defeated Russia, thereby establishing herself as aserious contender in the international colonial and imperial games.So, by the early twentieth century, as explained by Halliday, "Japan hadsurprised the Western powers. . . . It had entered the imperialist club and wonTaiwan. . . . But, the lesson was that without a countervailing alliance otherimperialist powers would tend to sabotage any Japanese successes."4That moment of arrival, exactly a century old by now, proved not only fatefulbut definitive. Korean annexation followed shortly after that in 1910, andincreasing military expansionism would ensue, climaxing in a vast tragedy -- atragedy awaiting repeat performance if the right wing militarists in Japan havethings their way.Another pattern common in imperialist countries' economic development ismanifest in the relation between Japan's economy and her foreign policy.Christopher Howe has demonstrated that the biggest expansions in Japanese exportup to 1945, for example, coincided with Japans various aggressive wars foracquisition of colonies and during the two World Wars.CLEARLY WAR IS GOOD BUSINESS FOR SOMEJapan's imperialist behaviors have continued to this day, even though thepenetration into new markets has not always been accomplished by war. Surely a mature system of imperial acquisitions needs periods of peaceful accumulation and naturalization as well. But, even and especially in peace times, in trade agreements and development aid programs, Japan is every bit as predatory as the US, and her lending practices every bit as Shylock-like as the IMF's and the World Bank's.In the general context of the colonizing process, what the military invasionsare meant to do is obviously to stake out territory, plain and simple. Suchconceptualizations as "the battle for hearts and minds," "the civilizingmission" (as the Europeans liked to call it), and the "Greater East AsiaCo-Prosperity Sphere" (as the Japanese propagandized) are absurdities put forth for the consumption of the people living in the bellies of the respective beasts at the center of the current world system. What else are they to call it?Rape and pillage?While the circus side of bread-n-circus show is handled by technicians ofideological state apparatuses such as the media and education systems of imperial countries, invaded societies are forced to change according to the wishes of the invaders, who are bent on exclusive contracts and concessions. In other words, an integration of colonized societies into the colonizer's system of capital accumulation is demanded. Once integration favorable to the colonizer has been (forcefully) formalized into law, then the colonizer's army may leave.The country has been branded, and its future economic survival has becomeconditional on the interests of the powerful at the center.For example, take Japan's attempts to integrate Chinese economic resources intoits own economy. In 1915, during World War I, China, knowing that the Europeanpowers armies were preoccupied with other fronts, demanded a total withdrawalof all foreign armies from Chinese soil. Japan, recognizing her chances forextortion, put forth a list of demands, known as the Twenty-one Demands, all todo with exclusive rights and concessions that Japan wanted to extract fromChina. After much "negotiation," China conceded to most Japanese demands.Eventually, however, the early Japanese successes had to be checked -- the USand European imperialists stepped in and put Japan "in its proper place," as ajunior imperialist club member, in the Washington Conference of Nov. 1921- Feb.1922.6THE UPGRADED MODEL
Fast forward to today. By now, the Japanese system is as sophisticated as anyrun by Western European powers or the US, though, of course, without as muchmilitary hardware -- yet.Take for example the aid mechanism. According to Walter Hatch and KozoYamamuras book, Asia in Japans Embrace, the Japanese government's aidprogram is marked by three fundamental characteristics. First, it tends toinitially focus on developing the infrastructure of countries which Japanesecorporations wish to penetrate but which lack necessary infrastructure for theirsmooth operations. Second, the aid program is heavily loaded with credit, asopposed to grants. This has the obvious advantage of more securely integratingrecipient nations into the Japanese financial-industrial infrastructure. Third,the Japanese government's development aid packages, much like those of the US,come with inelastic strings attached. Primarily, such "aid" requires expenditureof the money on goods and services sold by Japanese corporations. Further,receiving "aid" is not only contingent on spending it back in Japan, but evencontingent on getting advised byJapanese consultants on how, where, and when to spend it.But, more fundamental than the aid packages and the dependency relations theyreinforce is how the Japanese capitalist production system is regionalized inEast and Southeast Asia. As explained by Hatch and Yamamura, today Japan'smanufacturing is a three-tiered system based on a hierarchical division oflabor. "Japan usually supplies the high-tech inputs; the Asian NICs [NewlyIndustrialized Countries; e.g. Taiwan and South Korea] supply the high-tomedium-tech inputs; and the ASEAN-4 nations [Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia,and Indonesia], as well as China, supply the medium-to low-tech inputs.In case some still believing in the liberating powers of the invisible hands ofthe market or the infamous theory of "comparative advantage" claim that thethree-tiered system works to everybody's advantage in the long run, it must bepointed out that the entire purpose of this system is to protect themonopolistic position of the Japanese as much as possible, by rigidlymaintaining exactly the same hierarchical system, ad infinitum.The system that the Japanese multi-national corporations (with active andcomprehensive participation of the Japanese government) have developed over timeis one in which more and more Japanese companies operate in an increasing numberof countries in Southeast Asia in a way that maximally excludes the localsuppliers and manufacturers from the general production circuits that dominatethe world markets for manufactured goods and financial services.HISTORY CALLSReaders of Immanuel Wallerstein's works, and those who generally find in theWorld-Systems Analysis the clearest explanatory theory around for the state weare in, know that the world capitalist system is at a bifurcation point. Thesystem has reached its outer limits and is disintegrating. What will be theoutcome of this disintegration and what kind of social formation will replace itwill be determined by current struggles as well as those ahead.In this crisis, the Japanese ruling class, who are highly systematic if nothingelse, believe that their class survival depends greatly on their alliance withthe Anglo-Saxon axis and participation in wars of expansion, to conquer moremonopolistic positions and acquire increasing investment opportunities by anymeans necessary.So, the Japanese developments to watch out for, above all, are a) Japan's stancetoward the North Korean "nuclear issue" (coupled with the issue of the NorthKorean abduction of the Japanese citizens); b) the disputed Exclusive EconomicZones that form the quasi border between China and Japan in the East China Sea,which is really a dispute over access to energy reserves; and c) Japan'shandling of the question of Taiwan.One group of activists who have been tirelessly educating the public about howthe terror of wars affects women, as well as speaking out for reparations forviolations they suffered at the hands of Japanese soldiers, are the so-called"Comfort Women." Perhaps the best piece of news this year for any group of peoplewho survived World War II was the opening of the Women's Active Museum on Warand Peace, Japan's first ever resource center on sexual slavery before andduring WWII, which opened in Tokyo on August 1.Another related piece of good news was the spread of solidarity with thesurvivors of the Japanese Imperial Army's sexual slavery. On a Global ActionDay, on August 10, women worldwide held demonstrations in front of Japaneseembassies and consular offices, demanding legal and full compensation for thesurvivors, a full and unambiguous apology from the Japanese government, and theimplementation of recommendations made in this regard by the United Nations andthe International Labor Organization.The next stage of history is being made today, at the world system'sbifurcation. It is not simply up to generals and gun-toting goons to determinehistorys outcome. We, too, are historical actors, positively alive agents whocan and must affect the outcome of this historical period. As a revolutionaryonce said, "You may not be interested in history; but history is certainlyinterested in you!"
AFRICA FOR AFRICANS AT HOME & ABROAD!
PROF. MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY THE GLOBAL CRISIS EXPLAINED
WHAT THE ENEMY IS REALLY UP TO - Part 4
AFRICA GET READY TO FIGHT FOR YOUR VERY EXSISTENCE
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PLAYLIST PERMALINK
https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=41ADDC328D3CAEC0
Orignal Afrticle:http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/fiyouzat140805.html
FOOTNOTES1 Jon Halliday, A Political History of Japanese Capitalism, Pantheon, 1975, p.101.2 Ibid, p. 102.3 Ibid, p. 82.4 Ibid, p. 86 (emphasis in original).5 Howe, Christopher; The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy, Chicago, 1996. Seeespecially Table 5.1 and its related explanation, p. 116, and Table 5.2, p. 117.6 Halliday, p. 98-99.7 Walter Hatch and Kozo Yamamura, Asia in Japan’s Embrace, Cambridge, 1996, p.124 (emphasis added).8 Ibid, p. 126.9 Ibid, p. 23.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reza Fiyouzat is an applied linguist/university instructor, and a freelancewriter. He may be reached at . He keeps a blogRevolutionary Flowerpot Society. Parts of this article are adapted from anarticle that was to appear in Covert Action Quarterly #79.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Comments ()| Trackback--------------------------------------------------------------------------------IF YOU DON'T KNOW REAL HISTORY, YOU WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING!www.globalresearch.cawww.blackagendareport.comwww.worldreports.org
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