Why I Hate The Joneses » government

I Want My Country Back, But From Who?

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:04:34 +0000

Since the unraveling of the U.S. economy you hear many people shouting from the rooftops “I want my country back”. At the gist of this statement is a need to capture the greatness of a previous moment in U.S. history that was for the betterment of the individual. As many would say, “the good ole days”. For many, the current economic and political environment has created a lot of uncertainty in their lives. However, I have a couple issues with this statement. First off, who are the individuals who want to go back in time? Second, how far back would they like to go? Third, who do they feel took the country from them? Fourth, where do they live? Five, what is their current economic level? Six, what was their current economic level at the time they would like to go back to? If you posed this question to a million people you would probably get a million types of answers.

A lot of people in this U.S. have had their heads in the sand for a while (On certain things I can include myself in this category). To be honest, I have been part of the problem in one way or another, so these criticisms are not only leveled at others, but also myself. We have now become so delusional and desperate for an economic antidote that recent polls show that 36% of Americans wish for the economic policies of Ronald Reagan. I would like to know who these people are, but that’s quite a considerable number knowing the “Gipper’s” economic policies were pretty disastrous. Although many have debunked the merits of the “Reagan Revolution”, many romantic nostalgists just won’t let go. That’s not to say there weren’t people who benefited from the policies of Reagan, but collectively his policies were a disaster. Just ask former budget Director David Stockman on how ‘wonderful” the economic Reagan era was.

The disruptive social and economic “bullet” was fired decades ago. Let’s paint a picture. Just imagine millions, maybe even billions of people lined up after one another. An individual fires a bullet (economic instability and social disruption) from a gun. When you get hit with that bullet it’s economic anarchy for you. In that same line, many folks were, lets say number 10267 to get fired upon. Some were even in the hundredth and millionth or billionth. If you were towards the back of the line it wasn’t your problem because 33, 672, 45976, 273192, 834165, 5938200242 are getting socially and economically “murked” way before you. Many even thought, “oh it will never get to me” or even “Maybe the bullet will lose its momentum and velocity” before it gets to me. Or maybe in denial about the destruction of the bullet, “Maybe the bullet won’t hurt when it gets to me”. Maybe they felt it was someone else’s problem.

Now that the bullet is racing forward and it’s, as O.C. said, “Times Up“, people are clamoring around for answers as to what happened. Of course it would be “nice” to go back in time when the bullet wasn’t so close to home. The net of economic disruption had already been cast. Now that person is in the net with everyone else.

This reminds me of the Columbine father that said the following:

I am here today because my son Daniel would want me to be here today. If my son Daniel was not one of the victims, he would be here with me today. Something is wrong in this country when a child can grab a gun, grab a gun so easily, and shoot a bullet into the middle of a child’s face, as my son experienced. Something is wrong. But the time has come to come to understand that a Tech-9 semi-automatic -bullet weapon like that, that killed my son, is not used to kill deer. It has no useful purpose. It is time to address this problem.

It’s sad to see any father lose their son to such horrific violence, but at the time, we had already reached the tipping point where guns were in the hands of our youth. The carnage has now reached “everyones” doorstep, but many doorsteps have already been visited by gun violence. The anarchy is now more widespread. Now that we have shared economic grief, we are harking back to the “good ole days”. Keep in mind that there were many before you that have been living with these wounds, but your wounds are now fresh.

I remember a discussion I had with a close family member in the mid 90s and we were talking about the gang violence that had been prevalent in a neighborhood right next to ours. The town was Roosevelt, Long Island in New York. At the time the Bloods and Crips had made significant inroads into the neighborhood. We lived in Uniondale, about a stones throw away. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Wow, we really need to do something about this gang violence. A lot people getting killed in Roosevelt
Family Member: Well that’s Roosevelt, you know how THEY are
Me: Hmmm…well what happens when the gangs come to Uniondale?
Family Member: No, that won’t happen. This is Uniondale, gangs don’t come to Uniondale
Me: I don’t think so. If we don’t take care of the surrounding communities around us, we are definitely going to have gangs here
Family Member: [blank stare]

As expected, the Bloods and the Crips made their way into Uniondale and although the degree of our gang problem was lesser than Roosevelt, we still had people getting shot over gang violence and whatnot. In short, when the economic plane goes down it won’t matter that you paid $5000 dollars for your first-class ticket. Irrespective of your seating arrangement, we are all going down. It’s just a matter of who hits the ground first.

Your Congress Sold You Out

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:24:50 +0000

In September 2009 I wrote a post about learning the roots of the 2008 Financial Crisis. It really gets to the crux of why I was compelled to go on somewhat of an economic “expedition” to find out what went wrong with the U.S. economic system in 2008. Prior to the crisis there I wasn’t aware of any body of economic work that intelligently outlined the causes (not just the symptoms) of the financial crisis than the Austrian School of Economics. As I’ve said in earlier posts, I truly believe that the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) is by far one of the most complete descriptions of the “science”, if you will, of economic booms and busts. In addition to the ABCT, I believe that the Austrians have a way of interweaving a healthy amount of skepticism when it relates to the government intervening in the broader economy.

Unfortunately many other economic disciplines make wild assumptions, often very overly optimistic assumptions about the value of government intervention. At the same time, I have my own skepticism on the benefits of a 100% Libertarian approach to our social and political problems, but they clearly have the right pulse on many of the causes of how financial markets and economic incentives can be distorted by “well intentioned” governments. Private corporations don’t get off the hook, but in the context of the financial crisis, they worked in tandem with the government to completely destroy the economy.

I want to make a couple of points:

Be an economic policy skeptic. All policy isn’t created equal. As a matter of fact, many of the policy “prescriptions” by the government were completely backward and financially destructive and/or these policies were instituted to benefit a few while impoverishing many.
Read some of the suggested resources below. As a matter fact, read as much economic policy as you can. Many times you’ll get to the “real” intentions behind a lot of these policies.
Your Congress is bought (Thank you Dylan Ratigan from MSNBC). Please watch the video below and make sure you listen to every single word. If it’s not clear after you watch this video that voting for these cronies is a waste of time, then just off yourself. Okay..that was a joke..don’t off yourself but really understand that depending on our “do nothing” Congress is a waste of time.
The only option left is civil disobedience. What I like to call “soft” anarchy. Be an active participant in the economy. Vote with your pocket. Our government was not always enslaved to corporate interests. This can be undone, but it’s going to take a lot more than marching, waving hands, and holding creatively snark protest signs in different cities. There’s trillions of dollars at stake and if a high level of creative destruction doesn’t take place by the people, then we are playing a very dangerous, albeit participatory charade of musical “armchair revolutionary” chairs. Instead of sitting at home or in a cafe we are sitting in the streets.

Economic Resources that will increase your Financial Neurons

Books

Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi
Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry by Dylan Ratigan
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman
America’s Great Depression by Murray N. Rothbard
Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Ron Paul

Occupy Apathy

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:59:39 +0000

(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

At the root of every social movement is the will to change the present situation for something better. At the root of the Occupy Wall Street protest, which has now moved to other cities around the country, the intention of this movement is to unhook the almost parasitical tentacles of Wall Street from government policy (Washington). More on this here

I don’t believe ANY significant changes will happen via government policy or Washington’s intervention. Washington is an entity that is in the last stages of terminal “political” cancer. At the end of the day, this has to result in the banking firms that were responsible for this crisis to be reprimanded for their corporate malfeasance. We should reward (with our business) those financial institutions that are fiscally responsible, and move our money out of those financial institutions that contributed to the financial crisis.

I’m not convinced that the TBTF banks really understand what they did, nor does our government really care to prosecute these banks who irresponsibly unhinged the global economy for their narrow benefit.

So what we truly need to occupy, is our apathy. It’s our apathy and reluctance to being properly engaged in our political process that has contributed to Wall Street usurping power from the laymen and laywomen. In short, we kept our eye off the ball for too long. This corporate takeover has been happening for decades. Some would say it’s been happening since the inception of the Federal Reserve Bank. Regardless of when you think international banks started unsettling our political process, we are clearly at a tipping point where banks have complete control over our political process.

My suggestion is we engage in a bit of creative destruction to bring the balance of power back into the hands of where it belongs. the Proletariat and many of the hard working people of America (and around the world) who watched their jobs, wealth, financial security and personal livelihood go up in flames by the Wall Street, Federal Reserve Bank, Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) doomsday machine.

We should start with the following approach:

Remove all your assets and loans (checking, savings, IRA, Mutual funds, Brokerage accounts, credit cards, car loans, mortgages, etc) from all banks that were given a bailout from the government.
Take all those assets/loans and transfer them to a credit union or firm that was not given a bailout.
Everyone who did the first 2 steps should draft a personal letter using their own words and explain to the banks/investment firms (who no longer have your business) why you removed all your money. In addition to that, explain why you moved your assets to the other bank/investment firm.

It’s time to transform our thoughts into action. Show these banks and our “absentee landlord” government that they cannot push our society to the edge of financial oblivion, while profiting off that same financial destruction.

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it. – Bob Hope

My Thoughts On Black Unemployment

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 06:06:16 +0000

This blog post below was a comment I posted from an article my wife shared on her Facebook wall. My boy Clarence, suggested I turn the comment into a blog post. The article, Black Unemployment Highest in 27 Years appeared on Roland Martin’s magazine/blog website. It seems like you have three typical responses when someone sees these type of “Blacks have a more destitute situation than __________ (insert race of choice here)” articles. The first response is “America is racist, ergo if there wasn’t racism we wouldn’t have such high unemployment”. The second response is, “Blacks are a bunch lazy fry chickin’ eating watermelon cologne wearing, hip hop lovin’, overspending, loud mouthin’ government lovin’, drag on the economy havin’ monkeys that are unemployable who will continue to be the last hired and the first fired.” The third response is, “Oh these ____________ (insert race of choice here) keep taking our jobs. They’ll take so much less to work ______________ job”.

These absurd responses don’t get us any closer to solutions. They are simple knee-jerk reactions to a long-standing problem. I have seen these types of “high unemployment among blacks” headlines since I graduated from college (and before college) and it’s getting worse. The technology shift was supposed to be our golden parachute into prosperity. Didn’t happen. Happen for some but not many and clearly not enough. I wish I finished my If I Had My Own Black Leadership Forum series, but I still have 2 parts left to do. If you’re interested in reading the first 3 parts, you can start here However, I give you My Thoughts on Black Unemployment.

There are no short turnarounds for the high black unemployment rate but at the root of our problems is a misallocation of economic resources. Whether you believe the misallocation of economic resources was driven by a bunch of klan sympathizing racists in corporate america (and the general workplace) and our political system or self inflicted by the black community, we are clearly dealing with a misallocation of economic resources in the black community. This situation has been going on since our “inclusion” into the main economy. Many of you have heard me say this before (and I’ll say it again):

The total GDP of the African-American community makes us the 13th largest economy in the world. That’s right, only 0.6% of planet earth (African Americans) represents the 13th largest economy in the world. The African American/Black Market profile from the Magazine Publishers of America has slated the purchasing power of African Americans to hit the 1 trillion dollar mark by 2012. How can the 13th largest economy in the world, have one of the highest unemployment rates in America? Umm..misallocation of economic resources. (I said it in my quiet e-typing-voice so you don’t get annoyed by me saying this a billion times. I might say it a couple more times)

There are only a few individuals that have actually outlined real solutions and they are the following:

Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America by Dr. Claud Anderson
Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown by Tony Brown
Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political, and Economic Imperative for the Twenty-First Century by Amos N. Wilson
The Entrepreneurial Secret To Starting a Business: Without A Bank Loan, Collateral or Revenue (Volumes 1, 2, 3) by Cedric Muhammad

Although I have huge issues with their past prejudice/religious theology, the other organization is the Nation of Islam. With all it’s past faults, prejudices, and warped theology, Message to the Blackman by Elijah Muhammad was the first book that had me thinking about how my income and productivity in the economy made other folks rich and not my local community. I repeat, the book’s religious theology is rife with shirk, misinformation, hatred and black supremacist theology. However, it’s economic prescriptions are 21st century. The book should be republished, minus the hatred. If I was part of the NOI, I would include a public apology in the introduction of the book.

If you look at many black media communication vehicles, including Black Enterprise mag and BET (Viacom), many of them [black owned or not] have never mentioned any of these individuals. If they mentioned them, there hasn’t been any real effort in promoting their ideas. The average black person has no idea who these individuals are. That is not a simple oversight. It’s intentional. Not in a conspiratorial way, but in a “these individuals will upset the apple cart” type of way. Unfortunately, Amos Wilson has passed on but his rich wealth of economic information lives on in his seminal work, Blueprint for Black Power. It might be tempting to dismiss many of these individuals as a bunch of black supremacist separatist who long for a day when the black seperation movement will transform itself into a 21st century authoritarian movement. No, this is a immature characterization of their intent and economic ideas. They were concerned with the flimsy social contract that America promised it’s black citizens and wanted to usher in a concrete economic platform which we could depend on with certainty. Clearly we are in uncertain times and the social contract that America had with it’s black citizens is gone.

If Black America studied these ideas in these books with vigor and dedication, I believe we can significantly lower black unemployment into the lower single digits in about 20-30 years while becoming a viable and powerful economic engine for growth. There are no easy answers. It’s going to take time, skill reallocation, and a lot of money from those wealthy black individuals to invest in this plan. The government and non-black corporations have already moved on. This is what many of the individuals I mentioned above were trying to say 50 years ago. There will come a time when African Americans will be completely on their own. No jobs programs, no social institutions, no nothing. So in short, they were saying we have to build our own institutions and local economies of scale because the “support window” is going to eventually close. Now that the American economy is in such disarray, its going into hardcore economic Darwinian mode.

Obama and any other government employee can do very little for the black community. His jobs bill cannot overturn hundreds of years of economic mismanagement and social degradation. The government and too many “black leaders” are absentee landlords, time to look within our own community for answers. If they had your back, you would of been out of this mess a long time ago. We are on our own.

I Wanted to Join the Armed Forces After 9/11

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:21:57 +0000

The title of this post is a very dark and somewhat uncharacteristic thought I had after I saw the twin towers go down. At the time I was working for ABCNews in New York City. I was supposed to be working in the World Trade Center. When I moved back to NYC in 2000, I had a choice to work for a technology consulting firm on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center or ABCNews in Lincoln Center. I chose the latter. Seeing three jumbo plane jets (Pentagon and World Trade Center Towers) used as ballistic missiles was something that my mind could not comprehend. It was horrific, shocking, and incomprehensible. Why? Who? Is this the first line of attack? Are there dozens of other planes set to come raining down on every major city? Who’s next? Los Angeles? Philadelphia? Chicago? Houston? My mind raced around as I thought of city landscapes littered with buildings on fire, smashed jumbo jet parts, rubble, and bodies. Dozens of cities smoldering with the stench of jet fuel and charred bodies piercing our noses for miles.

I’m not sure if “patriotism” is the right description of how I felt, but I definitely felt invaded and attacked. I felt enraged that such a horrific act had taken place in my country. You know, like the big bully who pushed you into the wet muddy grass while celebrating your new mud stained reality on the ground. Nothing could prepare me for what I saw on TV. People jumping off of the tower building because the heat was too intense. Burn to death or plummet 80 stories to your death. After the fear and rage had dissipated I felt a need to react. I wanted to join the armed forces. I wanted to go to war with the villains who would carry out such a demonic act against innocent civilians. I wanted the enemy to know that this is the last time you will commit such a horrific act. But before I got my “armed forces on” I needed to know my enemy. Who did this and why?

As I dug deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of “who dunnit” and “why diddit” my patriotic/militaristic flames were quickly smothered by the water hoses of objective information and factual history. Oh really, the United States CIA had a program called Operation Cyclone to arm, train, and finance the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. Oh really, after months and months of the press asking for firm evidence on the accusation that Iraq had an elaborate nuclear arms “dirty bomb” program (Weapons of Mass Destruction) the only evidence the Bush Administration can scare up is some aluminum tubes they claim are being used for uranium enrichment. Oh really, Opium production sky rockets after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Oh really, unilateral approach on the Iraq War after the international community was completely opposed to this war effort. The final nail in the coffin was reading Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll. As you can see from the evidence, I decided to opt out of joining the armed forces. At the time, my plan was to join The U.S. Marines Corps.

There are many dimensions to my grief. I grieve for the American people who don’t understand how foreign policy creates new enemies. I grieve for the Iraqi people. I grieve for the Afghan people. I grieve for the Pakistani people. I grieve for the countless innocent civilians that lost their lives, here and abroad. I grieve because we are usurped by patriotic fervor. I grieve because we still believe it’s us vs them. I grieve because Muslims are still seen as untrustworthy and terrorist sympathizers. I grieve because people will read this and accuse me of being unpatriotic. I grieve for many of the armed forces who were killed during this war effort. I grieve because this will not be the last post I write on why militarism and occupation are stone age approaches to regime change. I grieve because only a few will see the connection between 9/11 and military occupation. I grieve because that last statement will be seen as insensitive to the 3000+ who lost their lives from a bunch terrorist maniacs. I grieve because too many see the terrorists as jealous of American freedom. I have no more tears for you America but I wish you well. Carry on.

Related resources

Costs of War
CIA Operation Cyclone’s Blow Back By Mir Hekmatullah Sadat
War in Afghanistan by History Guy

Democratic France and Antidemocratic Laws

Sarah Oxford — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:01:51 +0000

The latest scandal against Muslims is the ban on the wearing of the Niqab (full face veil that reveals only the eyes) in France. The ban, enforced throughout France on April 11th, 2011, further demonizes the choices and rights of all Muslims globally. Muslim women who publically sport the Niqab are faced with a fine of 150 Euros ($215). Men found guilty of forcing women to wear the Niqab may be fined up to 60,000 Euros ($87,000) in addition to a possible two-year jail sentence. An estimated 1900 women wear the Niqab in France. Two-thirds of these women are French nationals with an estimated 90% over the age of 40. President Nicholas Sarkozy’s law was passed after the majority of French parliament and the public supported the idea that the Niqab imprisoned women and contradicted the secular nations values of equality and dignity.

The Niqab is a controversial issue in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Muslim scholars have argued for and against the wearing of the Niqab for centuries. Some look at the face veil as oppressive while others find it liberating. Who is right? Who is wrong? I don’t know the answers to the prior questions as absolutes but what I do know is the mere ban of the Niqab in itself is an act of oppression. France pride’s itself on being one of the leaders of the “free” world. France labels itself a country that tirelessly fights for women’s rights. France boasts laws that support the practice of religious freedom. Ironically, a country of liberty for all feels entitled to oppress a group of women who choose to wear the Niqab. There are two ways to examine this situation; firstly, from a religious perspective and secondly, from a human rights perspective.

Let us delve into the possible religious explanation of the Niqab. I have researched the Quran, Hadith and Sunnah and found a few evidences that may be interpreted as support for wearing the Niqab. There is ample evidence that proves the Prophet’s (SAW) wives covered their faces in the presence of non-mahram (non-guardian) men. There is evidence that proves Asma, who was not the Prophet’s (SAW) wife, covered her face. Easily, one can conclude that wearing the Niqab is halal (permissible). The aforementioned evidence can be used to argue against the ban on the Niqab from a religious perspective. According to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,”No one may be questioned about his opinions, [and the] same [for] religious [opinions], provided that their manifestation does not trouble the public order established by the law” and “The law has the right to ward [i.e., forbid] only actions [which are] harmful to the society. Anything which is not warded [i.e., forbidden] by the law cannot be impeded, and no one can be constrained to do what it [i.e., the law] does not order.” The prior two clauses candidly state the French government cannot subjectively regulate and prohibit religious activity and may only do so to the extent that there is a need to safeguard the public.

Religious profiling based on dress choice is not an effective manner in securing the public as many examples confirm. On August 29th, 1969, Palestinian Muslim Leila Khaled was part of a team who hijacked a flight from Rome to Athens. She donned no Niqab, not even a headscarf. In June 2008, Maite Aranalde the world’s most wanted female terrorist and a non-Muslim, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted in a Paris Court for criminal association with terrorist intent. In September 2010, France was on high alert after a would-be Muslim female suicide bomber threatened the transport system in Paris. Her whereabouts are still unknown and there is no connection to a Niqab. Colleen LaRose, a non-Muslim from Pennsylvania more popularly known as ‘Jihad Jane’ did not fit the popularized version of a “Muslim” terrorist. There have been very few women who have worn the Niqab and committed terrorist acts. In collaboration with prior mentioned examples one can safely conclude that the wearing of the Niaqb is not a security matter and the French government has yet to prove that it has been in the past.

Let us examine the human rights aspect of the Niqab ban. Let us remove the presumed religious affiliation of the Niqab from the equation. Let us focus solely on women’s rights in France. France has long been known for boasting its fight for all women, regardless of class, ethnicity, religion and race. Women in France are free to walk in Daisy Dukes and bra-type tops. Women in France are free to wear mini skirts with tank tops. Women in France are free to wear the hijab. Women in France are free to laze around topless on public beaches. Women in France are free to tattoo their entire bodies including their full face. Women in France are legally allowed to work in strip clubs that accommodate any paying member of the public. Women in France are allowed to pose in Chantelle bras and lace thongs on human-sized billboards. Yet, Muslim women are being banned from wearing a Niqab.

Banning the Niqab violates the rights of women who choose to wear the Niqab. This ban is a so-called movement to liberate women and ensure public security. However, one can equally argue that women who strut the streets half-naked may be a public security issue as well. One may argue based on statistics that the rate of rape and sexual harassment is higher in secular nations that have no limits on women’s dress. One may further argue that nudity and avant-garde dress are unhealthy for our children. However, such arguments would be considered a violation of women’s rights and thrown out of court in a heartbeat. There is no hard evidence that wearing the Niqab threatens public safety, public order, health, morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. The ban on the wearing of the Niqab is only a hindrance in helping women who are coerced into wearing the Niqab and does absolutely nothing except impose unjust laws on those who choose to wear the Niqab. This ban will only serve to imprison women to their homes rather than liberate them.

Let us not be imprudent in our judgment and unjust in our laws. A ban on the Niqab violates the right to freedom from discrimination on the basis of both religion and gender. Furthermore, a ban on the Niqab is as much as a violation on women’s rights as it is a violation to force a woman to wear the Niqab.

An American Dream Deferred

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:57:12 +0000

This post was inspired by Langton Hughes’s A Dream Deferred.

Rather than go through the typical romanticization of our founders on July 4th while gushing over the 1st Amendment like a first born son, I’m going to write about some of the pressing issues of an America that has broken it’s promise with it’s citizens. Some contemporary patriots might scoff at me for suggesting such a thing, but my audience are for those who have been left behind, and not those how have fortunately benefited from the American fruits of liberty. Contrary to popular belief, everyone has not reached the promise land. Let me be careful with that last line. I’m not suggesting we start helicoptering pallets of money down to the masses. I’m suggesting that upward mobility is becoming more elusive and contrary to popular belief America does not have more mobility than other nations. In fact it has one of the lowest.

Some might say I’m being too hard on America and I should tone the “anti-patriotic” language down. When your country is at Defcon 1 in regards to social and economic issues, you have to ring the alarm to let everyone know that that we have a 10 alarm fire. Why should I save “patriotic” face when we are not living up to what this country has promised since the ratification of the Constitution? I see America as a country that is slowly losing it’s way. We hear a lot of lofty speeches from politicians, but when the citizens are asked to make hard choices we fall back to our ideological political camps.

Below you’ll find a video that is extremely telling in regards to the current economic shift that is happening globally. James Wolfensohn, former president of The World Bank and CEO of Wolfensohn and Co. does an eye-opening presentation for Stanford Graduate School of Business students on the coming global economic shift. In short, America and some of it’s Western compatriots are running out of time. It has debt to it’s eyeballs and waning political leverage on the global stage. It has financial obligations (Healthcare, Social Security, etc) that’s depressing it’s ability to leverage it’s internal resources. China, India, Africa and many other GCC countries are gobbling up global GDP faster than the cookie monster disintegrates cookies. If that wasn’t bad enough, we have a populace that does not have the 21st century education and skills needed to complete on a global scale.

Without further ado I give you James Wolfensohn, who asserts that in the next 40 years, a global power shift will see today’s leading economic countries drop from having 80% of the world’s income to 35%.

World Banker Makes Stunning Confession
This is a short 10 minute spooky conspiratorial version that some dude edited which has ominous background music and anecdotal commentary

Former World Bank President: Big Shift Coming
This is the 1 hour unedited version from Standford University. Although less exciting than the short-version, it has bit more intellectual meat on the bones.

Related Links:

Saudi Women Can’t Drive vs Every Other Problem

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:37:48 +0000

As some of you know, there is a huge campaign that has gone surprisingly viral over the last couple months which was sparked by Manal al-Sherif showcasing her “dastardly” driving skills in Saudi Arabia via a YouTube video. I guess it’s no surprise that what started out in the social space, has now continued to spawn in just about every social media corner imaginable. It’s truly fascinating to see the outpouring of support for many of the sisters in Saudi Arabia who want to drive.

The nature of this post is not to further elaborate on the injustice of the female driving ban in Saudia Arabia (just about every blog and media outlet has written about it ad nauseam from the NYTimes to Foxnews). What I want to touch on was a conversation that my wife (who is Saudi) and I were having this morning regarding the importance of other issues that have had deleterious effects on the region. For starters, how about the 62% Divorce rate in the Saudi Arabia?

Many people’s reaction to the driving ban in Saudi Arabia exhibits a certain type of repulsing, almost gaging response as if they saw a mass grave in front of their eyes. I do believe the ideology behind the female driving ban has a very gender-jim crowish feel to it. However, I would like to remind people of Ian Bremmer’s the J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall.

In short, countries move at their own evolutionary social, political and cultural pace. Depending on what country you grew up in, different social issues have a varying degree of importance and priority. What is socially horrific and unacceptable in America might not exhibit the same response in Saudi Arabia. We need to understand that issues are not black and white. They have varying degrees of complexity and concern. Our ladder of what is “I’ll burn the world down if I didn’t have this” is different from other countries. I’m not here to justify injustice, I’m here to put things in their proper context and priority. Let’s make sure we keep our eyes on the ball. If you’ve gone completely bat crazy because of the female driving ban, you should have gone just as bat crazy knowing about the other injustices that have had deeper, if not more negative effects on the empowerment of women in the Kingdom.

So when you wave your fist in rage from your armchair revolutionary seat at the alleged “backwardness” of certain countries just make sure you don’t spill your $6.00 Iced Vanilla Mocha Caramel Latte on your $100 dollar designer jeans and $200 dollar shoes while sitting in a country that has to print money to prevent a sovereign default, in addition to having a murder rate by firearm higher than the Czech Republic and Lithuania. It’s all about perspective.

Yeah it’s Earth Day But Who Cares

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:40:44 +0000

I’ve spent the last couple weeks cruising through the documentary Collapse on my IPhone. The documentary is on Michael Ruppert, a police officer turned independent reporter who predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness.

There is some pretty scary stuff in Collapse. Mr. Ruppert goes way beyond just fractional reserve banking, fiat currency and Federal Reserve monetary policy, but spends a substantial amount of time on the potential societal impacts for the human population because there are limited resources on planet earth.

This documentary serves more of reality check than another boilerplate conspiracy theory piece. As Mr. Ruppert so eloquently stated:

Of course I’ve been called a conspiracy theorist but I don’t deal in conspiracy theory, I deal with conspiracy fact

The audio above is by far some of the truest and honest reality check I’ve heard since Alan Moore’s Culture of Steam quote regarding the doubling of information.

Another other choice quote from the documentary so you know what we are dealing with:

If your in a camp with a bunch of campers, and a bear attacks, you don’t have to be faster than the bear. You only have to be faster than the slowest camper. – Michael C. Ruppert

Part 1: If I Had My Own Black Leadership Forum

Malik Abdul Rasheed — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:16:23 +0000

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Many of the ideas in this post are culturally independent (some are not) which means any individual can utilize the information written in this post. I do believe that U.S. born people of African descent who live in America have a unique history that requires a solution that is bit more narrow in scope. I say this because I was born in the U.S. with a rich Jamaican background and I succumbed to some of the same dangerous pathologies that many people have wrongly assumed are exclusive towards African-Americans who were the descendants of slaves that were brought to America. The reality is, every person in America has been impacted by the culture of others. No one culture occurs in a vacuum, there are lots of bleed-over and intermingling of social and cultural experiences.

Before i get started, I created the image on the left myself, but I jacked this idea from Cafe Press. Just want to give props to those who deserve it. Creative capital is just important. One other very important point. The intent of this post is not to shame anyone. These are ideas and resources that I have accumulated over the last 15 years of my life, and were extremely helpful in my personal development. My intention is to spread useful information. Okay, now lets get started.

Over the last 10 years of my life I have seen a slew of “Black Leadership Forums” (BLF) or Black Agenda Forums (BAF) come and go. By far the “Bentley” of BLFs has been Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union or Round table. Although there has been recent pull back as people from the black community have questioned the “intentions” of his forums, nevertheless it has been seen as the “Lets Find Out What’s Happening With Black Folk Nationally” forum in regards to economics, politics, and various social issues. Even MSNBC and CNN have jumped into the BLF frey with their forums and specials. Al Sharpton just had his BLF last year, and the NAACP had one in July of 2010. Nevertheless, I’ve watched most of these forums, often with hope and weariness.

The total GDP of the African-American community makes us the 13th largest economy in the world. That’s right, only 0.6% of planet earth (African Americans) represents the 13th largest economy in the world. The African American/Black Market profile from the Magazine Publishers of America has slated the purchasing power of African Americans to hit the 1 trillion dollar mark by 2012. Now that’s not to say that all is well, but we clearly have something to work with.

I will break up this post into 5 parts. My hope is that I will be able to finish this before the end of Black History Month 2011. The first part (what you are reading now) is an explanation of my intent and what topics my fictional BLF will contain. In the middle three parts I will explain the the 3 areas that I deem extremely critical to what I will call Black Reconstruction 2.0.. The last part will have resources to every piece of media (books and film) that’s related to this topic. In each area I will list a group of individuals that I believe are the thought leaders who can offer Ideas that lead to solving critical problems, instead of people who give lip service to ideas that go nowhere. These are critical thinkers who continue to think outside of the box while not falling into the “arrogant trap” of their own egos and personal accomplishments. Bless those individuals who taken the time, effort, and necessary sacrifices to live by the creed of “each one teach one” and “am I my brother’s keeper”. Often said by many, but seldom done.

So lets get down to the nitty-gritty on what would my BLF look like, who would be there and what my agenda would be?

To set the stage of my fictional BLF, I would not have a BLF until I actually owned the building where the conference/forum would happen. What is the point of giving lip service to “being independent”, where you have to pay others to have a conversation about “being independent”. In addition to that, the hotel and related eateries would have have to be owned by me. If this option was not financially feasible, I would have each speaker give a 1-2 hour explanation on the topic via video stream and providing resources (books, articles, websites, etc) that detail the presentation they just gave. I would more than likely opt for this virtual option, because asking people to fly all over the world and drive to your event is a waste of time, money and resources that can be better spent toward the actual conference itself. All these hotel fees, gas, food, and travel time is a waste. No audience, no grand standing, no ham-bonin’, and definitely no moon shinin’. Stop showing your teeth!. This is “straight up” information that you can use. Raw and uncut.

There are three sections to my BLF and they are following:

1. Don’t Believe the Hype. Healing comes first.
Without the proper spiritual and mental healing, the next 3 parts of this post won’t mean much. This is about cleaning the mind, body and soul of all the toxic psychological and lifestyle impurities that divert us from greatness. So many of us talk about being powerful and independent but forget about having the proper dignity, candor, and humanity about themselves and the world around them. Not to mention being extremely humble about our accomplishments and fortune. In this section I will have a select group of doctors (some) who I believe have experience in helping folks remove the self-hatred, spiritually deadening and self-defeating attitude that undermines our future. They are the following:

Dr. Joy Degry Leary – Author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healin
Dr. John Rich – Author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Mem
Sandra L. Bloom – Author of Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies
Tim Wise – Author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
Claude M. Steele – Author of Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us (Issues of Our Time)

2. Use History as Guide to Help Your Present Situation
One of the biggest issues I see in our communities (not that these issues are exclusive to our communities) is an unwillingness to immerse ourselves in the necessary information to help us address our present problems. I have seen this at all class levels, from the poorest of the poor to the the so-called “talented 10th”. There are so many lessons from past events that serve as a guide for the future, that we often have circular conversations on problems that have already been solved. In this section the participants will give us a brief history in the following areas. Each speaker will be given 2 hours, then provide the necessary resources to help break-down their 2 hour presentation. Now some of the individuals I’ve mentioned have passed on, so I would play certain films and have a panel discussion after to talk about the film:

A Brief History of African Civilization (Here we will show films by Dr. Henrike Clark, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima and Cheikh Anta Diop)
The History of Race and it’s Socio-economic Impacts (Tim Wise, Howard Dodson, Dr. Claude Andersen)
The History of Religion (Specifically Christianity and Islam) and it’s Cultural impacts (Sherman A Jackson, Cornell West)
The History of Economics: Government Intervention vs Free Markets (Russ Roberts, Arnold Kling, Thomas Sowell)
The History of Violence and it’s Psychological Impacts on the Black Community (Mumia Abu Jamal, Dr. John Rich)
The History of Media and It’s Impacts on Cultural Values (past speeches from Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr. Jared Ball, Neil Postman, Tricia Rose)
Why Africa Should Matter to African Americans (Dambisa Moyo, Wangari Mathai, Cedric Mohammad)

3. Talk is Cheap. Action Speaks Louder than Getting on Your Soapbox and Doing Absolutely Nothing
One thing I realize about people, is they like to talk. It’s so easy, just open your trap and stuff starts coming out. To be honest, if we got charged a financial penalty every time we said erroneous, propagandized, or unusable information you’d probably hear a couple thousand people talk on television around the globe. Unfortunately, we have a sea of information that does not maximize our spiritual or human capital. Most of it is junk-food nonsense that gets regurgitated over an over again. Like the way a fly eats it’s food. It has to take in food, vomit on it, then slurp it back up. Do you really want to eat like that? Well chances are, you are. They have repackaged, dyed it, seasoned it with fragrances, and sold you something that appears useful, but is as efficient as Ford Model T racing in the Indianapolis 500.

This last segment of my fictional BLF is very important. These individuals will give you the tools. You’ll actually get the hammers, and wrenches to get to work. The first two segments focus on actionable data. This segment focuses on the tools that you need to take advantage of that data. Although this list could reach well over a thousand, I have specifically picked these individuals based on their willingness to be prudent and forthright in their approach to business, socio-economic circumstances, and human enlightenment. Here is the group that would master this segment:

Judith Aidoo Private investor, and Chief Executive of both Caswell Communications
Nassim Teleb, author of Fool by Randomness and The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: “On Robustness and Fragility
Fareed Zakaria, host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN and author of The Post-American World
Russ Roberts, host of EconTalk and author of The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protection
Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa and How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly–and the Stark Choices Ahead
Raghuram Rajan, author of Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy
Mumia Abu Jamal, author of Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA
Roland G Fryer, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and author of numerous white papers that will blow your wig back

Well folks, that’s it. The following 3 parts will delve into why I believe that each of these individuals offers something that we can benefit from while explaining why they are experts for each segment. The last part (part 5) will be my conclusion on where we are at and where we are going. Look out for the next parts over the next couple of weeks.