What's your political affiliation, and why?

I do as well. Not saying you are stupid, just sayng I'm very boring and very jealous of you. I also score high on IQ tests. But I am bored easily. I tire of long and tedious tasks and just say "fuck it" that's what earned me some low grades this year, and it's been happening for ages. Though to be honest, I scored the highest in overall Reading, Reading Comprhension, and vocabulary. I scored above average in mathmatics(variopus forms) and science (various forms) but I'm merely an average grammarian. Yet a terrible typist, btw, trying that match stick idea...

 

Famine according to UN statistics is to live on a diet that has less than 400 kcal/day. Unfortunately I don’t have my books with me and I am awful at the Internet, so I can’t give any reliable figures on the US for now.

I must confess that even I am a bit confused with what I wrote. I think you know that for me it’s very important to discuss politics; and, ass-licking aside, I really love to discuss with you. Unfortunately I am in the middle of an insomnia crisis, so I am not in conditions to make mush sense in such a touchy and difficult subject. I will get back to it later.


Edit: I can't make much sense right now, but I must say that:

is quite the oposite of what I meant.

 

What..what about me..I thought..I thought I was the Literate Lad..

Did I get the poin youw anted to make right, or are you just ignoring it becausryou are furious I answerweda question diected to you? I just did it because it's awfully late in Brazil and thought that you left.

 

No Vyaas, I am not ignoring you because you answered a question directed at me; I would like more people in this discussion (although the attempt to guess what I meant was not a nice move).
I am giving it a rest because I haven’t slept in more than 40 hours and I am having the mother of all headaches. Also I am now part of the flexible workforce (ie I am unemployed), a fact that is not easing my headache.

 

I've just had a great idea on how to solve the world's famine problem. Teach everyone to make beer! There's 2000 KCal in one pint of beer (coincidentally, exactly the same amount an average adult male needs per day - females need 1800) and you can shift cereals around the world really easily!

I know, I know. Just call me a Genius.... :wink:

 

Or amke everyone eat yeast and drink soda. Then they'll never want food.

 

After a while on that diet, they probably wouldn't be able to remember food anyway. Oh, wait! That applies to my theory as well... :razz:

 

Why is that a bad thing?

 

Well, I can’t sleep or take this off my head. I hope it’s a bit clearer now.

What I tried to say is that along with political influence, military imposed or not, there are financial gains. These gains can assume many different forms, trade treaties, strategic prime-matters control (oil, iron etc) among others. Local elites usually gain some benefits in these cases (usually political and financial), as it would be very hard to control these countries without them. When necessary, military force is used (US’ humanitarian actions are very choosy and there are many not so divulged interventions, like Indonesia).

IMF doesn’t lend just money; it sends the experts to outline the political lines they should follow. I gave Argentine as a token example, but no country that followed its rules had seem their population’s life become better. Even when those plans seem to give benefits these are very short lived. Mexico, Argentine and Brazil come to mind. In Mexico there was a region so poor and abandoned that the left guerrilla simply took over without killing anyone. IMF has both economic actions as politic ones. Relations between countries are at the same time political and economic. Venezuela is trying to make a few changes in this program; the problems of this attempt are showing.

This takes us to where maybe we disagree. To me there isn’t a clear line between politics and economy. These two spheres are strongly connected. So it’s hard to me to consider capitalism and nationalism that far apart. National States and Capitalism were born at the same time; I have a tendency to consider both as different sides of the same coin. There are countries that are not strictly capitalist, but when I look at China and Cuba’s recent policy I wonder if they really are that far away from this logic. When URSS ceased to be communist there appeared “out of nowhere� many businessman, as is the case now with China.

This is not pure and illogical “evil�; today a country that doesn’t squash labor’s right does indeed become uncompetitive and unprofitable having a hard time sustaining itself (hence Tony Blair’s New Labor). Even if capitalism is a world system it requires the National governments as political agents.

I don’t believe that today’s concept of Nation is workable. But I don’t think that in one hour it will come down and we will live in paradise. As I don't clain to have a recipe. My positioning as a communist is a positioning in the political struggle. Just because I am very skeptical about the possibility of achieving structural changes via the State, doesn’t mean that I will give up trying making whatever pressure I can make and rejoicing at each progress that happens.

 

Structural changes via the state will never happen. True problems are always based on the people. Think of the Middle East. Palestinians want their own "state" but they can't have it. Before its creation, the state doesn't solved problems. Even if a Palestinian state was created, they would just try to advance into Israel.