Khaalis Rolle - Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president says: It’s extremely frightening to do business in The Bahamas now

Bahamas ‘far beyond Wild Wild West’
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:


The Bahamas will be “in major trouble within five years” if it fails to take immediate action to control its ever-expanding crime problem, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce’s president warning that last week’s Supreme Court break-in and armed robbery at FirstCaribbean’s Sandyport branch showed this nation was “far beyond being the Wild Wild West”.

Telling Tribune Business that the level of crime in the Bahamas, especially violent offences and armed robberies, was now the highest in his lifetime, Khaalis Rolle said many Bahamian businesses were now afraid to conduct commerce at night, as criminals seemed to have no fear of the law.

Arguing that guns were seemingly as commonplace as cars in the Bahamas, Mr Rolle said the FirstCaribbean armed robbery and high speed chase/shoot-out between the crooks and the police showed just what a lawless, dangerous society this nation had become.

“It’s extremely frightening to do business in this country now,” Mr Rolle said. “When you get to the point where the criminals have equal or better ammunition than the police, and have absolutely no fear of the law, what’s the alternative? What do we do?”

Recalling a reggae song that described Jamaica as a ‘Cowboy town’, the Chamber president added: “The Bahamas is far beyond a Cowboy town, the Wild Wild West. Every single day there is a report of some armed robbery or attempted armed robbery. The criminals just don’t have any fear of the law.

“I think about 10 years ago I spoke at a Toastmasters meeting, and I had a conversation with a politician. I said the Bahamas was becoming an increasingly dangerous society and something had to be done. His response was as if there was no concern, and we’re at the point now where businesspeople are extremely afraid to do business after dark.”

Pointing to the Supreme Court break-in at Justice Jon Isaacs’ office, Mr Rolle said this showed that “no place is off limits”.

“The criminals are so daring that they do what they want to do during the day, and the one entity where you’d have thought they would be off limits is no longer. The fellow broke into the courts. This is extremely serious,” the Chamber president added, pointing out that the implications went beyond just the immediate negative impact on business and the Bahamian economy.

Warning that it would “not be long” before travel advisories and media reports declared the Bahamas an unsafe destination, Mr Rolle added: “Everyone seemingly has a gun. Guns seem to be as ubiquitous as vehicles. Guns are everywhere; cars are everywhere. Gun crime is fare more pervasive than it has ever been in my life.

“The mindset has degenerated to the point where people do not believe there is a penalty attached to their actions, and if there is some penalty attached, people don’t care.”

Acknowledging that it was “easy to point the finger” of blame at the Government or Royal Bahamas Police Force for this nation’s crime problems, Mr Rolle told Tribune Business: “There’s a huge implication for society as a whole.

“I believe this problem goes far deeper, and if we do not resolve it now, or at least start taking preparatory steps to, we’re going to be in significant trouble in five years. In five years’ time, the Bahamas will not be the same Bahamas we see now.

“We’ve got some issues that are going to impact this country, and even though I speak on behalf of the business community, the implications far beyond. It goes back to deficiencies in the education system, deficiencies in the social system, and we have to address these deficiencies and do it proactively.”

August 03, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

Emancipation

By Dennis A. Dames:


Escaped from the wicked shackles of foreign force and enslavement…
Man’s brutal inhumanity and bondage now below my feet
Alive and free… overjoyed spirit dance to the sacred beat…
Never a slave again… but a man with the divine motivation to succeed triumphantly
Clothed in inner peace and freedom…
In lasting independence – so profoundly welcomed
Pleased in doing the soul’s wondrous desires…
All the way to enduring pleasure and satisfaction
Trusting in the gifted will; songs of inspiration fill my heart…
Ideas and dreams that are exclusively mine to follow
Opening the gates of unlimited and bountifully useful prospects…
No more master but God is mine

Daily Delivery of private choice and deliverance…
Always in accountable control of my personal liberation and destiny
Yes, the Lord is my sole light in all things graciously pursued and well done.


©2010 Dennis A. Dames
Nassau, Bahamas

Bahamas Blog International

Bolivarian Venezuela at the crossroads, Part 3: The Venezuelan economy: in transition towards socialism

By Eric Toussaint - CADTM:

The capitalist sector is growing faster than the public sector and is still predominant in Venezuela’s economy despite the nationalizations.

The share of the private sector (greatly dominated by the capitalist sector |2|) in Venezuela’s gross domestic product has grown from 64.7% in 1998 (before Hugo Chávez was elected president) to 70.9% in the third quarter of 2008. |3| Although the government has nationalized a significant number of large companies in the electricity, telecommunications, steel, food, cement and banking sectors, the capitalist sector has recorded more rapid growth than the public sector, which explains that its relative share in GDP has increased whereas the share of the public sector has decreased (from 34.8% in 1998 to 29.1% in 2008) |4|

This can be explained by the way the country’s oil income is used. The overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan State’s revenue comes from oil exports. The government massively uses the resources coming from oil to improve the living conditions of the poor majority of the population (as well as of the medium income brackets) in the fields of health (where results are impressive), education (also impressive), supply of low-priced basic products through the distribution and marketing channels Mercal |5| and Pdval |6| (staple food and other basic products for households), housing construction, the building of infrastructure and public transport (subway, train), wage increases in the civil service, increases in a large number of grants and social allowances, not to mention expenses in the field of culture and sports. It grants substantial subsidies for cooperatives, communal councils, etc. The result is clearly positive: the percentage of Venezuelans below the poverty line was reduced by half between 2003 and 2008, from 62.1% to 31.5% of the population. As for the percentage of people in extreme poverty, it was reduced by two-thirds, from 29% in 2003 down to 9.1% in 2008; |7| illiteracy dropped sharply, the level in training improved, access to free healthcare increased greatly, mass consumption rose.

But to a large extent the capitalist sector is also benefiting from government spending because it is still dominant, by a long way, in the banking sector, in trade and in the food industry. The extra money that goes to the people and comes from public spending ends up in the capitalists’ pockets because it is in the capitalist banks that individuals (and also cooperatives, municipal councils, municipalities and many other public entities) deposit their money. It is the capitalist banks that issue consumer credit facilities in the form of credit cards, and support a growing share of the consumption (and charge high interest rates for this). It is the capitalist companies of the food industry that produce or market most of the food products consumed by the masses. It is the capitalist import companies that bring from abroad the many imported products consumed by Venezuelans. The private retail chains still dominate trade even if Mercal and Pdval are significant players in supplying basic products. When the State nationalizes private companies that belong to the national capital, it is the local capitalists that receive buyout compensations from the State.

In brief, the capitalist sector continues siphoning off most of the money spent by the State to help the poor or middle-income sectors of the population.

According to a study |8| by Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval that is in fact very favourable to the Chávez government, the private financial sector grew by 37.9% in 2004, by 34.6% in 2005 and by 39.2% in 2006, while the growth of the public sector (all sectors taken together) was only 12.5% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005 and 2.9% in 2006.

As stated by Victor Álvarez : “During the previous mandate of President Chávez (2000-2006), most financial, fiscal, exchange rate incentives, most public spending, most technical assistance, etc., went to the existing production apparatus, fundamentally consisting of commercial companies, which reproduce a capitalist mode of production that is, paradoxically, the very one we want to overtake and transcend.”

We are thus far from the assertions made by the mainstream media, which see in the Chávez administration a rampant imposition of state control over the Venezuelan economy.

Gifts made to the banks

An additional issue, stems from the policy of overvaluation of the Venezuelan currency against the dollar. This question requires some explanation. Since 2003, companies that want to import goods and services have had to buy dollars from a state administration called CADIVI. This is a useful measure taken to fight capital outflow. The problem is that the exchange rate between the bolivar and the dollar overvalued the value of the former. It therefore exacerbated a perverse pattern: for a capitalist who has a large amount of bolivars, it is more profitable to change them for dollars which are sold cheaply by the State and import products from the United States or elsewhere than to produce them in the country. Thus the policy of an overvalued bolivar deterred productive investment and encouraged trade based on the frenetic import of goods |9| and sale of the same through the big private retail networks. These massive imports are in fact subsidized by the State since the State sells the private sector the cheap dollars it has accumulated through its oil exports. Another point also needs to be examined: how this policy of an overvalued bolivar and a high level of imports influenced the inflation rate, which has been particularly high in Venezuela in recent years. This high inflation rate reduces the impact of the pay rises granted by the government.

One vicious example of this policy of an overvalued bolivar and of gifts made by the government to the private banks: the Venezuelan State bought debt bonds issued by Argentina in 2004-2005. The problem is that it sold part of these Argentine debt bonds, drawn up in dollars, to the private banks. These banks bought them with bolivars at the official overvalued exchange rate. What did some (in fact many) of them do with these bonds? They sold these Argentine debt bonds in the United States or elsewhere to obtain dollars. This allowed them to bypass the control imposed by the Venezuelan State over capital movements. Officially, they did not export capital; they only got Argentine debt bonds out of the country.

Since then, the State has kept on making gifts to private banks thanks to similar manoeuvres. PDVSA and other public entities issue public debt bonds drawn up in dollars that are bought in bolivars by Venezuelan banks at the official exchange rate. Then these banks sell part of the bonds on the international market for dollars |10|. In brief, the State policy has two negative consequences: first, it permits capital flight in a circuitous but perfectly legal way; second, it encourages parasitic banking behaviour (buying of debt bonds) to the detriment of productive investment.

The conclusion that can be drawn is that although the State is trying to carry out a policy of endogenous development (i.e. designed to meet the internal demand through greater domestic production), the way the oil money is redistributed, combined with the overvaluation of the bolivar, tends to strengthen the capitalist sector and its importing pattern.

In a speech given during the meeting of intellectuals organized by the CIM, the writer and lawyer Luis Britto aptly summed up the situation: “We live in a dual society, and in a fable I wrote I explained that if one tries to set up a mixed system with hens and foxes in one single henhouse, then the following week, there will only be foxes left, and then they will eat the farmer.” |http://www.cadtm.org/IMG/article_PDF/article_a4492.pdf and Martha (...)" rel="footnote" href="http://www.cadtm.org/The-Venezuelan-economy-in#nb11">11|

Dealing with the thorny question of exchange rates: the January 2010 devaluation

In January 2010, the government carried out a devaluation. What does this devaluation consist of? Two official rates were set: the first one represents a 21 percent devaluation of the bolivar against the dollar (instead of 2.15 bolivars, 2.6 bolivars are needed to obtain one dollar); the second rate represents a 100 percent devaluation (one has to pay 4.3 bolivars for one dollar instead of 2.15 bolivars). The first rate (2.6 bolivars per dollar) is in force for expenses considered to be vital or at least to be a priority: imports of food, medicines, technologies, equipment for industrial or agricultural production, imports made by the public sector, the payment of scholarships to Venezuelan students studying abroad, of pensions to retired people living abroad. The second rate (4.3 bolivars per dollar) is applied to imports of automobiles, beverages, tobacco, cell phones, computers, home appliances, textiles, chemical and metallurgical products, rubber, etc.

In the short term, this devaluation will increase the State’s tax revenues. The dollars that the State gets from oil exports will be sold for a larger amount of bolivars. This is certainly one of the main goals pursued by the government which has seen its tax revenues dwindle due to the impact of the international crisis on the country’s economy. But this does not mean that the Venezuelan State is going to win on all fronts. The repayment of the public debt, 67.8 percent of which is drawn up in dollars, will cost the government more. The Venezuelan bankers and other capitalists who bought debt securities drawn up in dollars will get richer once again.

Obviously there are other consequences: for the workers and all low income earners who receive this income in national currency, the devaluation means lower purchasing power: the cost of the products they consume will be higher because many products are imported or produced in the country with a large imported component. Importers, retailers, producers will pass on the additional costs to the retail price. This loss of purchasing power can only be limited or compensated if wages increase in proportion to the cost of living, which is not the case. On 1 May 2010 Hugo Chávez decreed a 15 percent increase in minimum wages and pensions but inflation reached 25 percent in 2009 and will probably be even higher in 2010.

This devaluation aims at other objectives in the longer term, but it would be risky to say whether they can be reached or not. Among these objectives, the most important one is certainly the promotion of import substitution. Since importing now costs 21 or 100 percent more (depending on the products imported), imports should decline and local producers should be in a better position for selling their production on the national market. Even better: the devaluation should convince them that it is profitable to produce products that were formerly imported. This could create a virtuous circle thanks to which the country could strengthen its industrial and agricultural base by replacing imported products with local ones.

Translated by Stéphanie Jacquemont and Judith Harris, in collaboration with Francesca Denley and Christine Pagnoulle

 

Next part: Suggested paths to 21st century socialism in Venezuela (Part 4)

Part 1 : “Venezuela. Nationalization, workers’ control: achievements and limitations” Part 2 : “Debate and contradiction in the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela)”

Footnotes

|1| The first part of this series ‘Bolivarian Venezuela at the crossroads’ was posted on the CADTM website on 14 April 2010 under the title ‘Venezuela. Nationalization, workers’ control: achievements and limitations’, the second part was posted on 18 June 2010http://www.cadtm.org/Debate-and-con... (see also: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article17417 ) under the title ’ Debate and contradiction in the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela)’

|2| For instance, the share of social economy within the private sector is very low: it reached 1.6% of gross domestic product at the end of 2008, up from 0.5% in 1998. Out of a total of 11,692,071 working people at the end of 2008, only 201,773 work in the social economy cooperatives, i.e. barely 1.7%.

|3| See Victor Álvarez “The transformation of the Venezuelan productive model : review of ten years of government”, Revista La Comuna n°0, p. 37 to 55. Victor Álvarez was Minister of Basic Industries in the Chávez government from January 2006 to August 2007.

|4| This statement has to be qualified: until 2002, although a public company, the operation of PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela Sociedad Anónima) had progressively favoured the private sector. A large part of its revenue was declared and taxed in the United States. The measures taken by the Chávez government from 2002 onwards enabled the State to take over the company’s management, which resulted in a strong increase in revenue to be later used to finance social policies.

|5| The Misión Mercal S.A. (MERCado de ALimentos) is one of the social programmes promoted by the Venezuelan government. Officially launched on 24 April, 2003, the Misión Mercal is designed to serve the food sector and comes under the control of the Ministry of Food. The programme involves building shops and supermarkets and supplying them with staples and basic products at low prices that are affordable by the needy. Food products are subsidized and arrive on the shelves without middle-men, so that the prices offered usually represent a discount of 30% to 45%, compared to the prices charged in other distribution channels.http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misi%C3%B3n_Mercal

|6| Productora y Distribuidora Venezolana de Alimentos (Pdval) was created in January 2008http://www.abn.info.ve/go_news5.php?articulo=117377

|7| Quoted by Victor Álvarez.

|8| See Mark Weisbrot and Luis Sandoval, The Venezuelan Economy in the Chávez Years, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, 2007,www.cepr.net

|9| A personal anecdote: in late November-early December 2006 in Caracas, I was utterly astounded to see in the middle-class neighbourhoods that thousands of Christmas trees imported from Canada were being sold. In the shops, they were also selling quantities of devices to spray artificial snow on the trees. It should be added that in Caracas the temperature around Christmas is over 20°C. The massive import of Christmas trees from the Great North is very profitable thanks to the overvalued bolivar. It is true that Chávez criticized this pattern of systematic imports, all the more so as, he said, it was linked to cultural traditions (Santa Claus for instance) that were also imported and unquestioningly adopted to the detriment of local cultures.

|10| The foreign financial papers The Economist and the Financial Times regularly stress that Venezuelan private banks are very pleased with this opportunity given by the State to bypass capital movements control.

|11| See http://www.cadtm.org/IMG/article_PDF/article_a4492.pdf and Martha Harnecker “Selección de las opiniones más destacadas de los intelectuales reunidos en el CIM” (Selection of the most prominent opinions of the intellectuals in the CIM meeting)http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=88131 which takes up extracts from several speeches given during the meeting of intellectuals organized by the CIM in early June 2009.

P.S.

Eric Toussaint, Doctor in Political Science (University of Liege and University of Paris VIII), is president of CADTM Belgium (Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt, www.cadtm.org). He is the author of A diagnosis of emerging global crisis and alternatives, VAK, Mumbai, India, 2009, 139p; The World Bank, A Critical Primer, Pluto Press, Between The Lines, David Philip, London-Toronto-Cape Town 2008; Bank of the South. An Alternative to the IMF-World Bank, VAK, Mumbai, India, 2007; Your Money or Your Life, The Tyranny of Global Finance, Haymarket, Chicago, 2005.

Source: CADTM

July 31st 2010

Bolivarian Venezuela at a Crossroads, Part 2: Debate and Contradiction in the PSUV

venezuelanalysis

Bahamas Blog International

The social crisis in Appalachia Part 4: Youth prospects

By Naomi Spencer

This article is the fourth of a series on the history, economy, social and environmental conditions in the Appalachian region of the United States. Part 1 was published on July 22, part 2 on July 24, and part 3 on July 27. World Socialist Web Site reporters recently visited the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia and interviewed residents on their conditions of life. Accompanying interviews are posted in four parts here: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.

A vacant home in West Virginia

The population of the coalfields region of eastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia has hemorrhaged with the collapse of wages and jobs in the coal industry since the 1980s. At its peak in the mid-1970s, coinciding with a coal boom and an upsurge in militant strikes, the coalfields region experienced a population increase of 21 percent, more than double the national average growth rate, to more than 2.3 million residents.

The 1980s, however, signaled a devastating and international counteroffensive of capital against the working class. In central Appalachia, the coal companies, aided by the betrayals of the United Mine Workers and other unions against the workforce, succeeded in isolating strikes, forcing out the most militant workers, and replacing large sections of the workforce with machines manned by much smaller, highly exploited crews. Mining towns that at one time bustled with commerce and thousands of residents have stagnated and decayed.

In the 1980s, coalfields counties lost nearly 100,000 residents. Between 1990 and 2000, coal-intensive counties lost another 10 percent of their population, a trend that has continued in the decade since the last US Census.

Young people and working class families are compelled to leave the region in search of livable wages and educational opportunities. This out-migration in turn further exacerbates the dearth of specialized medical, educational and other professional service providers.

The poorest youth find few options after school, centered on low-wage jobs, military enlistment, or mining and logging industries. Even in the retail sector, young people are faced with intense competition over jobs, including with older workers who have lost higher wage jobs in the course of the recession. In West Virginia, the number of unemployed workers doubled in 2009, according to the state Center on Budget and Policy. Over 25,000 jobs were cut, many of them in the better-paying manufacturing sector. In already distressed coalfields counties, the poverty rate for children is more than one in three, and young adults also bear a disproportionately high and rising poverty and unemployment rate.

World Socialist Web Site correspondents interviewed young people in the area about social conditions and employment prospects. Many expressed concern over access to quality education and the economic decay of the region. Residents also voiced their concerns over the management of the environment, many of them drawing parallels between the plight of Appalachia and the still unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Miranda

Miranda Kohari, a 22-year-old Chatteroy, West Virginia, resident, works part-time at the Righteous Brew coffee shop in Williamson. She is a first-year nursing student at Pikeville College, a 45-minute commute from home. “I started out as an education major,” she told the WSWS. “I switched to the nursing program for the job security. I thought you can go anywhere as an RN.

“I don’t have student loans—I am really lucky. I won a scholarship the year I was born because I was the first baby born in the maternity ward of the Pikeville hospital. Without that, there is no way I could have gone to school. I’m still living at home with my family. I wouldn’t be able to afford to live on my own; I work part-time at the coffee shop, which if you aren’t in coal, it’s the only kind of work you can find.

“I really wanted to be a teacher,” Miranda said. “But the schools are being cut and education isn’t a steady career path anymore. There are a few teachers in my family and they’ve been laid off. This was really devastating. Here, the Williamson high school is going to close and be consolidated with Matewan and Birch. I love this town, and I really hate to see it collapse.

“When the economy is collapsing, there’s nowhere for people to go,” she told the WSWS. “Some of the young people attend Southern West Virginia Community College, but the majority go away and don’t come back. A lot of businesses have relocated across the river in Kentucky, and people drive down to Pikeville to do their shopping. The economy here is worsening because of that, and because of the broader economy. Three or four different businesses in the shop down the street have opened and folded in the last couple of months.”

Like many residents, Miranda sees the dangers and destructiveness of mining primarily as a consequence of reckless management. “My whole family has always been in the coal business,” she explained. “I don’t want to see the environment destroyed. But I’d rather them get the coal from up top of the mountains somehow than underground, because it is so dangerous. The Gulf disaster really disturbs and upsets me. It is a similar issue. I am very concerned about the ecology, and the wildlife and what the impact of that oil is going to have on all of us.”

Rick Lucas, a Pikeville resident, is a business major at Pikeville College with an emphasis in accounting. “Around here the coal industry is dominant. There are better ways of doing it,” he said. “My father is the owner of a contract mine on Black Mountain. The problem is that big coal companies don’t want to do things the right way.

Rick (left) and Steven

“The US was once the strongest economy in the world. It’s fallen so far. In the 1950s and 1960s, the country was prospering. But now it’s collapsed,” he noted.

Rick told the WSWS that he lives at home with his parents, who help him cover tuition costs not covered by some scholarships. He also works part-time as a sales associate at a local pharmacy for minimum wage. “I have a few bills, but it would be a real struggle if I had to live on my own.”

Rick’s friend, Steven Wright, is a 19-year-old junior at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and a native of the unincorporated Pike County community of Virgie. A mechanical engineering major, he said he is able to attend school with the help of a federal Pell Grant and a Smart Grant, the federal grant program for science studies.

Steven described his parents as hardworking: “My mom is a teacher’s aide. My dad worked in a coal mine, but he stopped when he developed stage 1 black lung. Now he works for a construction company under a private contract, with a wage of around $15 an hour. When he gets a state contract, the wages are higher, $20 to $25 an hour.” Steven said his family has trouble with health insurance costs, and his parents help to pay for his university tuition.

Describing the limited opportunities for young people in the region, he told the WSWS, “If you go to high school here, you typically go into mining or the military. I’ve heard my high school, Shelby Valley, is the number-one military recruiting school in the state. They don’t prepare kids enough for college. It’s really behind in curriculum; they just started offering AP [advanced placement—college prep classes] a few years ago. When I graduated, AP calculus was not offered.

“There are not a lot of majors available at Pikeville College,” he said. “There is a narrow focus on business and a few other vocations and not a lot in terms of broad education. People kind of feel restricted. They’ve got a good school for medicine. Everybody can’t be a business major.”

A self-described Republican, Steven told the WSWS that the Republican right did not represent his interests. “Fox News has gotten ridiculous. I don’t watch anything on television anymore. I like to read articles online that provide content.”

Steven expressed outrage over the Gulf oil disaster. “I want to know why a whole month passed before they even tried capping the oil well leak. Why is BP still in charge? It could have been handled a lot better—they’ve done nothing but slide past everything, and Obama has let this go on. He can say things about how he’s going to kick some asses, but he’s a better ass kisser than an ass kicker.

“There should be more people working on it, scientists, engineers. I’m sick of the idea of ‘quick fixes.’ What is a ‘quick fix’ for a catastrophe? From an engineering perspective, this never should have happened in the first place.

“I love the idea of alternative energy. There are other ways to power cars; there are rechargeable batteries that you never have to throw away and that don’t have any of the toxic chemicals that currently leach into the soil. Why should BP control so much money, to pursue oil?

“We should put our best scientific minds to nanotechnology. We could employ nanotechnology in fixing the Gulf, and to bettering other energy production. The first person who can come up with a nanobot to go down into the mines and extract coal—! Why should miners go down there, risk their lives, get sick? They already have these innovations in the medical fields.

“But innovations are so slow in development,” he added, indicating that profit interests were acting as a drag on science. “It typically takes two or three decades for an innovation to be fully implemented. Why? Because you can’t make billions of dollars from it right off the bat. We need to have some regulation.”

Heather Jordan, a 16-year-old high school student from Wyoming County, West Virginia, told WSWS reporters she worried about the limited prospects for her and her peers. “I want to study nuclear medicine when I go to college,” she said. “Science is so important. I know someone who works as a radiologist, and I thought this was an interesting field.”

“But I probably will have to go away to find a program and a job,” Heather said. “Where I’m from, most people are low income, with lower living standards. A lot of my friends are on free and reduced price lunch, and their families are poor. There’s been a gradual loss of jobs for a long time because of the changes in the coal industry,” she said, “but a lot of jobs are being lost to the recession too.”

Ann

Ann Francis, a 20-year-old junior in music education at Morehead State University (MSU) and a native of Pikeville, Kentucky, spoke to the WSWS at Pikeville College, where she is employed for the summer. She mentors working class high school students aspiring to go on to college.

Ann graduated high school in Pikeville before attending MSU, about 90 miles to the north. “A lot of people leave this area when they graduate, or say they want to leave when they get out of school,” she said, “but they end up working here after all.”

Like university students all around the country, Ann has seen double-digit tuition increases every year. “I have scholarships and haven’t had to take out any loans,” she said, but added that the scholarships will not cover the fifth year of school she will have to attend in order to complete her degree. “I don’t know how I’ll pay for tuition after they run out.”

At MSU, she said, “They have tacked a lot of extra fees since tuition cannot be raised more than a certain amount.” Ann said her scholarships do not cover the newly imposed $90 “music fee,” and Internet classes—which are increasingly replacing traditional general education courses—now cost an additional $300. She has worked minimum wage federal work studies on campus to help offset these costs.

Chris

Chris Hollis, a 21-year-old Pikeville College graduate, just received a degree in business administration and management. He is working temporarily at the university. “I went home to Columbus [Ohio] to try to find a summer job, but there weren’t any. I applied, but no one’s calling me back. I have a job here for the month, but after that, I don’t have any plans.

“I have some private student loans, not as much as some people,” he said. “But the payments kick in in November. I hope I can find a decent job by that time. I don’t want that debt lingering over my head for a long time.”

Asked what young people did for entertainment in Pikeville, Chris said, “I was on the bowling team in college. Kids can go bowling, or go to a movie. Some kids here just go hang out in the Wal-Mart parking lot.”

To be continued

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Interviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

30 July 2010

wsws.org

Bahamas Blog International

The social crisis in Appalachia: Part 3: Environmental disaster and private profit

By Naomi Spencer and Rosa Lexington:

Millions of dollars worth of coal heaped in uncovered train cars pass through impoverished Appalachian towns each day, covering the ground and coating buildings and automobiles with coal dust. The enormous wealth produced in the region is owned and controlled by a few large companies and individuals, while the majority of the population lives from day to day, many without basic necessities.

Export pier at Newport News, VA, where European and Asian-bound ships are loaded with coal from central Appalachia

In the pursuit of greater profits, the coal industry has expanded its surface mining operations in the coalfields region. Since 1999, coal operators have acquired surface mining permits on some half a million acres in Kentucky and West Virginia, primarily in the coalfields region. This has boosted extraction rates with the employment of far fewer workers, while worsening the environmental health and public infrastructure. The political establishment and regulatory agencies from the federal level down, along with the trade unions, have facilitated this state of affairs.

Surface mining operations in Letcher County, Kentucky near the site of the 1976 Scotia mine disaster, which killed 26 miners and inspectors.

Surface mining has increased dramatically in West Virginia since the 1970s and 1980s when coal miner strikes shook the industry. In 1982, 19 percent of total mining tonnage was the product of surface mining; by 2006, the proportion had reached 42 percent. In all, some 1.2 million acres—one in 10 acres, a cumulative land area the size of the state of Delaware—have been surface mined in the region, according to data from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Mountaintop removal is a form of large-scale surface mining that involves blasting away trees, topsoil and up to 1,000 vertical feet of ridges to expose deep-running coal seams. Millions of tons of debris are dumped into adjacent valleys, blocking natural stream paths and increasing runoff. These extensive “valley fills,” along with logging operations that have denuded hillsides, have worsened flash flooding and left valley towns more vulnerable to mudslides. Silt runoff has also filled creek and riverbeds, making overflows much more frequent with heavy rains.

FEMA trailer camp near Gilbert, West Virginia, to house residents displaced by repeated flooding

These operations often take place in close proximity to residential areas, including towns where a large percentage of residents were once employed in mining.

On June 12 of this year, several counties in southwestern West Virginia were hit by flash floods, prompting disaster declarations and the deployment of the National Guard. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) opened three “Disaster Recovery Centers” in three of the affected counties on July 6, three weeks after the disaster.

The June floods were the latest of a series that have struck coalfield towns in the past few years. The World Socialist Web Site spoke to many residents who said they were certain that recent mountaintop removal operations had exacerbated the floods. However, political and environmental officials deny a firm link between the disasters and mining operations.

Scores of residents in Gilbert, a small Mingo County community, and neighboring towns were living in trailers that had been brought in by the FEMA after floods last year. FEMA camps lined the highways in bare, unshaded gravel lots. Residents said families circulated through the camps on a waiting list, with some making repairs on their flood-damaged homes only to be hit with new damage the following year.

On a perfunctory visit to the region, Democratic Governor Joe Manchin commented to reporters, “It’s a shame to come to the same areas every few months and see the damage over and over again.”

A June 14 report in the Charleston Gazette related that Manchin told reporters, “[H]e could not attribute the cause of the flooding solely to mountaintop removal mining,” and that because “there is no direct correlation,” communities would have to focus on “mitigation” efforts.

This tack effectively absolves the coal industry of legal responsibility and shifts the financial burden away from the coal operators onto public agencies and residents themselves. Many flood victims have no insurance; in the aftermath of other recent floods, residents have seen flood insurance skyrocket to thousands of dollars a month.

Residents have little legal protection against such devastation. After major floods in 2001, some 1,400 survivors filed a lawsuit against coal and timber companies; this was secretly settled in December. A similar lawsuit recently been filed by 20 Mingo County families against four mining companies is likely to be settled the same way. The coal industry views legal proceedings largely as a cost of doing business.

A landslide on June 15 in Mingo County, caused by a mine operated by an Alpha Natural Resources subsidiary, resulted in mud and debris being washed against two homes and over a road. Such slides are so common as to barely rate a mention in the local papers, though their impact on the quality of life for residents is incalculable.

The state’s regulatory agency, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), does little to enforce its requirements that strip-mining operations adequately assess the impact their activities will have on surface water runoff and contamination of local water supplies. Federal regulations, overseen by the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining, are crafted to be largely voluntary and self-enforced.

The danger of flooding has been created through decades of extraordinarily reckless mining practices. Federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) data indicates that mountaintop removal valley fills destroyed an estimated 724 miles of Appalachian headwaters from 1985 to 1991, and more than 1,200 miles between 1992 and 2002. Regulators approved 1,600 valley fills from 2001 to 2005, estimated to have buried another 535 miles of streams. All of these operations were undertaken in violation of federal protections on headwaters, yet the government took no action against the coal companies on any of them. Instead, the OSM loosened regulations on what constituted “fill” so as to allow for sediment and toxins to be dumped in streambeds. At every level, the thrust of policy has been to conform the law to the practice of the violators.

Mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, manganese, beryllium, chromium, and many other toxic and carcinogenic substances are all contained in coal. Mining and coal preparation at processing plants release large amounts of these particulates into the groundwater every year with impunity. At prep plants, the coal is washed with other chemicals, producing a toxic byproduct known as “slurry.” The slurry is held in massive impoundment ponds or underground, including in old mine shafts, where it poses a significant risk of leaking into the water supply.

Hundreds of billions of gallons of coal slurry are held in impoundment ponds throughout the coalfields region. The region has suffered several major spills of slurry or thicker coal sludge after dam breaks. Most recently was December 2008 coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, which released 1.1 billion gallons of waste across 300 acres and into nearby rivers.

In 2000, over 27,000 Martin County, Kentucky, residents had their water supply contaminated by a sludge spill at least 30 times the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill after a Massey Energy impoundment collapsed into mine shafts and spilled into the Tug Fork river below. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration fined Massey only $5,600 for the disaster.

In the 1972 Buffalo Creek Disaster, a slurry flood from the Pittston Coal Company impoundment in Logan County, West Virginia, sent 132 million gallons of waste into the valley towns below, killing 125 people, injuring over 1,200 and rendering the remaining 4,000 residents homeless. Widespread protests followed calling for the prosecution of coal bosses for murder and outlawing strip-mining, which combined with militant strikes by miners over job safety, black lung exposure and for improved living standards.

A number of studies have reported high arsenic levels in the water supplies of coal mining areas. Surface and private well water have chemical contamination profiles that indicate contamination with coal slurry.

The West Virginia state Department of Environmental Protection unveiled a proposal in May to set the legal limit of “total dissolved solids” (TDS) at 500 milligrams per liter in streams and waterways, double the federal recommendation. The department studies leading up to the proposal were prompted by complaints beginning in 1998 about unpleasant odors and tastes in drinking water drawn from the Monongahela River, and a massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek on the border between West Virginia and Pennsylvania last fall.

Coal mining is a major source of TDS. The dissolved solids under the proposal include chlorides and sulfates, which at high levels can be dangerous to aquatic life and cause unpleasant odors and tastes in drinking water. At the same time, DEP announced plans to weaken the state’s legal limit for iron in trout streams, from 0.5 parts per million to 1.0 parts per million.

Citizen and environmental advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against Massey and Arch Coal subsidiaries in the state for allowing excessive levels of selenium to contaminate the water supply. Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral that is released in excessively high levels as runoff and as a byproduct of coal processing. Patriot Coal, coal giant Peabody Energy’s newly spun-off Appalachian operation, has been charged with similar violations by federal Judge Robert Chambers at its massive Hobet 21 mountaintop removal operation.

In June, Chambers ordered a hearing, set for August, to consider issuing an injunction against the operation. In a 55-page opinion, the judge also pointed to the role of the state Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) in delaying the enforcement of standards on selenium. Chambers stated, “Hobet’s track record of non-compliance and the WVDEP’s history of acquiescing to deadline extensions and other modifications to ease permit requirements suggest compliance is not likely without intervention on the part of this court.” In January, the federal Environmental Protection Agency approved an expansion of the Hobet operations.

Even small amounts of selenium have been found to cause reproductive problems in aquatic life. A June 18 Charleston Gazette report cites the work of biologist A. Dennis Lemly, who found that the Hobet 21 operation has left the Mud River “on the brink of a major toxic event.” Lemly has identified that Mud River fish are suffering substantial deformities, including curved spines and both eyes on one side of the head. “If waterborne selenium concentrations are not reduced, reproductive toxicity will spiral out of control and fish populations will collapse,” Lemly stated.

Coal companies have been using “streamlined permits” issued by the Army Corps of Engineers in Appalachia—almost 80 percent of permit approvals since 1997—to get around the Clean Water Act. Such permits were supposed to apply only to “minor activities that are usually not controversial” and that would have only “minimal cumulative adverse effects on the environment.” The Gazette notes that mining operators have been permitted to purchase streams as long as they follow the formality of submitting in writing “a general plan” to minimize adverse effects. With this process, “There is far less regulatory scrutiny, or public notice and comment, than if companies go through the more rigorous individual permit process.”

The Dominion Resources power plant, south of Richmond, Virginia, where 11,000 tons of coal are delivered by train from southwest West Virginia or eastern Kentucky every day.

As a result, hundreds more miles of streams have been filled with debris and toxic waste. The Corps is now halting the streamlined process. However, the Corps has joined with the coal industry in filing a notice that they would appeal a court order to halt streamlined permits for strip mines in the southern coalfields of the state.

Residents of Williamson, situated on the Tug Fork River, told the WSWS that the city warned them not to drink the water or brush their teeth with it over six months ago, and that they never saw a subsequent announcement lifting the advisory. In nearby Matewan, residents related a similar situation, telling the WSWS that they had been told not to eat fish taken from the river. Some houses had no water available, Williamson residents said, because waste being stored in old mine shafts had leached into the groundwater.

Any improvement in water quality is made at the expense of the population. West Virginia American Water is seeking to raise rates by 15 percent to recoup the $50 million it spent on improved water lines and treatment plants beginning in 2008. If regulators approve the request, customers’ bills would increase by an average of $6.32.

A coal road in West Virginia. State funds subsidize the construction of private industrial roads.

The coal industry is buffered from any such costs. A new analysis of tax data by the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy found that the coal industry cost the state budget $97.5 million more than it paid in taxes and other revenues. The analysis factored in government outlays for inspections, the extensive damage to roads and bridges by coal trucks, and tax breaks. The report found that in 2009, the coal industry paid $307.3 million in severance, business, and corporate income taxes. The state devoted $174 million in tax credits and subsidies, and expended another $113.7 million to regulating mining and repair of the state-subsidized coal-haul roads.

Coal operators in Kentucky enjoy a similar disparity. According to the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, the coal industry accounts for $528 million in state revenues and $643 in expenditures, including $85 million in tax incentives for “the mining and burning of coal.” The report notes that the figure does “not include the many externalized costs imposed by coal including healthcare, lost productivity resulting from injury and health impacts, water treatment from siltation caused by surface mining, water infrastructure to replace damaged wells, limited development potential due to poor air quality, and social spending associated with declines in coal employment and related economic hardships of coalfield communities.”

27 July 2010

The social crisis in Appalachia Part 4: Youth prospects

wsws.org

Bahamas Blog International

Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 1

By D. Markie Spring
Turks and Caicos Islands:

It is evident that individual islands within our Caribbean region cannot stand alone; therefore we need regional integration into every aspect of our system.

However, it must be noted that there are some islands in the region that are doing well. The Bahamas, Barbados, the British, American, French and Netherlands overseas territories, states and departments have sustained economies; British and US Virgin Island, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, the ABC Islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Conversely, Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana have weakening economies, but they have sport teams that are competitive at the highest level. The Eastern Caribbean has semi-strong economies.

In my honest opinion, I believe that the Caribbean could be a force to be reckoned with; only if we unite all of our efforts. As a region we should come together and compete against the rest of the world.

Let me start this debate with sports. The Caribbean had regionalised its effort to build the most successful cricket team in the world. This had worked for many years until the West Indies cricket team was severed by a number of factors, including poor player selections. It was clear that, if the West Indies unites its other resources, we could accomplish many things. Why do we have so many individual sport teams?

We should also combine our efforts in tourism. Although some Caribbean nations greet millions of tourists per year, this is not a fraction of the amount of tourists that travel to other parts of the globe.

To illustrate this further, The Bahamas has more than a million tourists visiting its shores annually, when France alone has 74 million.

Many citizens across our region believe that only the Caribbean has lush valleys and mountains, and white sandy beaches with crystal clear waters. No, my people, the Philippines, Thailand and other far eastern Asian countries also boast these qualities.

We should adapt the business term called Comparative Advantage, where each country identifies its strongest attractions and builds on them -- from a regional prospective. This means that countries such as Turks and Caicos Islands should market its white sand beaches, while other countries like St Vincent and the Grenadines promotes its eco-tourism environment.

Furthermore, the Caribbean has to integrate its economy into a single economy, if it wants to create an economy that is recognised and competitive to the world. These days, individual markets are developing impeding problems. Our regional economies are too dependent upon each other.

There is, however, some strong evidence that a single economy would derive better results. Although the OECS countries are not fully integrated through economic efforts, its dollar has maintained comparative and competitive value for decades.

In this sense, it is safe to say that our regional leaders do not have that regional vision needed to push our nations forward. We cannot depend upon developed economies to assist us -- not in these difficult economic times.

Countries like the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, BVI and USVI and the Cayman Islands often decline membership and their willingness to integrate. One thing these nations must realise, though, is that their economies are not diverse enough to stand on their own for much longer; therefore, we need to unite as one Caribbean.

Some leaders and citizens alike believe that the economies of too many islands are too weak to have successful integration. We must look at the European Union. The only countries in the EU that are economically vibrant are those located in Western Europe. To date, the EU combined maintains the world’s biggest GDP. Is this something to learn from?

We must direct our efforts away from Individualism and start thinking collectivism. All we are doing in the region is competing against each other and stealing the little we possess.

I realise that some readers may find this article contrary to their beliefs. However, with this criticism I am ready to debate my ideologies. I am a young professional who believes in oneness and that there is no form of survival without unity. In addition, I believe that people with different ideologies may be isolated and their lives might be spearheaded by political affiliations.

July 29, 2010

Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 2

caribbeannetnews

United States government would like to see closer integration between countries in the Caribbean

US 'would like closer integration' in Caribbean
By ALISON LOWE
Tribune Staff Reporter
alowe@tribunemedia.net:



THE United States government would like to see closer integration between countries in the Caribbean, with this a topic of conversation yesterday between a high level US official and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

According to Dr Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, one of the major “pillars of engagement” that the United States government is hoping to promote in its relations with countries like the Bahamas and its neighbours in the Caribbean is the “strengthening” of the integration process that CARICOM represents.

Speaking to the Bahamian media during a press conference with US Ambassador to the Bahamas, Nicole Avant, at her official residence yesterday, Dr Valenzuela said this was one of a number of issues discussed with both Mr Ingraham and opposition leader Perry Christie during meetings that morning.

“We were talking about the CARICOM, how we see the evolution of CARICOM and what role could CARICOM play with regard to some of the issues (such as) climate change, security and economic development,” said Dr Arturo, a key adviser to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on a broad range of political, economic and security issues that affect the Caribbean region, as well as South and Central America and Canada.

“There’s always room to see how we can improve processes of democratic governance and in particular in the Caribbean; (we want to) have a dialogue with leaders in the country about the possibility of increasing the integration process in the Caribbean – whether CARICOM and its framework can be strenghtened moving forward.

“Our co-operative efforts with the nations of the Caribbean have to be dealt with bilaterally – between the US and those nations – but at the same time we’re mindful of the fact that we’re better off if we can co-operate and discuss things in a broader context and in this sense a regional integration process is a process that would help in our own co-operation.

“Our security framework right now for example is within the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) and as you know much of our trade and economic policy has an overall focus on the Caribbean as such,” explained Dr Valenzuela.

The CBSI is a recently launched Shared Regional Security Partnership between the US and the Caribbean that seeks to bring all members of CARICOM and the Dominican Republic together to jointly collaborate on regional security with the United States as a partner.

The US is set to contribute $45 million this year and $79 million in 2011 to the initiative, which has as its core objectives the reduction of illicit trafficking, the advancement of public safety and security and the promotion of social justice.

July 27, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International