On poverty and violence

20070611
(answer to the question "Poverty generates violence: true or false?")

I always distinguish poverty from despair. Poverty can be measured, and some people manage to live happily with only a few things. Despair is what people actually feel. More than poverty, despair and injustice lead to violence, and moreover, violence generates violence. The initial violence can be either physical or psychological, and great injustice is a kind of violence.

Hopelessness makes people do extreme things. You cannot repair injustice but have some impact, make yourself be heard. With the help of often cynical manipulators, you can be turned into a suicide bomber : your suffering stops, you make other people suffer, you have an impact and you make yourself be heard in a final kaboom.

Red Blogule to Iraqi Inc

20040501 (see blogules 2004)

Rummy is delighted to notice a boom in consumer goods in Iraq. But the fact home appliances and cars are being bought doesn't necessarily mean the Iraqi people are enjoying them.

The truth is there is almost no electricity in the country, even in Baghdad (4 hours per day tops for the luckiest - what is the use of a fridge ?), and while thousands of gallons are being exported every day, people have to stay in line for hours to get some gas at a station. There is a surge in consumption for the people who actually can make money: thieves or corrupted officials. In the meanwhile, the US are protecting as much as they can the exports, making a priority the financing of the war and of SIGHs (Special Interest Groups, Halliburton & Co).

There is no reason why the US should recover the cost of their invasion before the Iraqi people recover their survival means. The priority should be given to the Iraqi people, and the bulk of the exports should first finance their administrations (education, security, first help) and companies. The handover to the Iraqi people is also a matter of wealth.

SM on a forum