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631 New approach to debt called for -- rank: 1000

At 21:02 02/09/99 -0500, you wrote: Christian I found it hard to understand where you are coming from so I checked previous posts. Possibly this is a continuation of our exchanges over Kosovo, but the difference between us at the moment appears to me that you come from a position of militant cynicism and I come from a position of militant reformism. Clearly you yourself will not be in the vanguard of any campaign to weaken and defeat the neo-liberal policies of the Bretton Woods agencies. The is ...

Document Size:	12398
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Sep 3 00:43:22 PDT 1999

632 New approach to debt called for -- rank: 1000

At 07:40 02/09/99 -0500, Christian wrote: >FDI = foreign direct investment. World Total FDI inflows 1998: $400 billion; >inflows to Africa, $4.7 billion. 1.17% of total. > >My point: $200 billion could make a difference in Africa, but I think the >likelihood of its getting there is pretty slim. "Official" organizations >like the World Bank and the IMF still need motivations to send huge sums of >cash that way. They won't send it out of the goodness of their hearts. ...

Document Size:	12398
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Sep 2 16:00:20 PDT 1999

633 New approach to debt called for -- rank: 1000

At 20:22 01/09/99 -0500, Christian wrote: >Chris, > >As in your earlier lucubrations about SDR's, your "solution" to the problem >presumes that the problem doesn't exist. Kindly quote my arguments because I do not recognise you assertion as a lucubration or any other sort of product of my own mind. What problem does not exist? The Botswanan minister clearly thinks a problem exists. Abbreviations: In your condensed post you use SDR's - special drawing rights, TT revenues - p ...

Document Size:	7799
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Sep 1 23:54:12 PDT 1999

634 Green success over capitalist poultry farming -- rank: 1000

The largest UK chicken producer has bowed to pressure from environmentalists and stopped routinely using anti-biotics to increase weight gain. Grampian Food Group, based in Aberdeen, supplies 200 million chickens a year, 1/3 of all UK produced chickens. Campaigning can succeed! Chris Burford London

Document Size:	4901
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Sep 1 22:50:02 PDT 1999

635 Japan's soaring public debt -- rank: 1000

At 09:48 01/09/99 -0400, you wrote: >[From today's NY Times. Amazing -- why hasn't the Japanese economy >gotten more stimulus from all this debt?] My sense is this is a pretty muddled and empiricist article, but I am willing to be proved wrong. I also suspect the hidden coded language whereby western capitalists try to false-foot and embarrass Japanese capitalists, but subtly so it is hard to put your finger on exactly how the massive rivalry between the two blocs is panning out. The timi ...

Document Size:	5820
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Sep 1 15:52:09 PDT 1999

636 New approach to debt called for -- rank: 1000

At 21:47 31/08/99 -0400, Doug wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>Sounds like the IMF needs to set up a fund to divert capital centrifugally >>out to Africa at the same rate that it is flowing in centripetally. >> >>Sounds like the need for a Tobin tax again! > >Could you explain how a Tobin tax, a levy on transactions, would >fundamentally change the direction of net capital flows? And since >most of Africa's creditors are official, not private, would a TT ...

Document Size:	5456
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Sep 1 14:56:44 PDT 1999

637 Science vs. Ideology (was Re: foucault? relativist? ROTFL!) -- rank: 1000

At 08:00 31/10/99 -0800, Ian wrote: >Yoshie wrote: All truly scientific endeavors >contain the kernel of truth beyond ideology > >What is it about reality, language and mind that "allows" this to be a >possibility at all? I would suggest, the connection through practice. But perhaps others have better answers. Chris Burford London

Document Size:	5178
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Oct 31 16:30:11 PST 1999

638 Eureka moment slightly delayed -- rank: 1000

I have to report that last week's New Scientist suggests that the eureka moment I hailed for Netaid's direct internet funding for the UN, has been slightly delayed. 10 years? 5 years? But the concept has been created, and in that sense I think is irreversible. Chris Burford London >> THE INTERNET still has miles to go before it can rival conventional TV. Even fast modems and ISDN access can't help if the main delivery system is overloaded. This message came across loud and clear from the f ...

Document Size:	6681
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 28 11:17:53 PDT 1999

639 PDS out of the ghetto? -- rank: 1000

At 16:58 26/10/99 +0200, Johannes wrote: >Chris wrote: >> I would appreciate if German correspondents could confirm or clarify some >> developments I think I have picked up on German teletext over the last >week >> or so. >> >> Following the setbacks for the SDP in the series of elections and the >> advances of the PDS voices have been raised increasingly strongly in the >> SPD that the party should be able to discuss cooperation with the PDS. > ...

Document Size:	8868
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Oct 26 16:01:12 PDT 1999

640 PDS out of the ghetto? -- rank: 1000

I would appreciate if German correspondents could confirm or clarify some developments I think I have picked up on German teletext over the last week or so. Following the setbacks for the SDP in the series of elections and the advances of the PDS voices have been raised increasingly strongly in the SPD that the party should be able to discuss cooperation with the PDS. Schroeder's office appears to have backed a formula announced by the incoming party president Muntefering, that this issue can be ...

Document Size:	6290
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Oct 25 16:03:20 PDT 1999

641 Tobacco capital hit again -- rank: 1000

At 08:45 21/10/99 +0200, you wrote: >From: Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org> > > >>Big tobacco capital has been punished again for failing to heed Marx's >>injunctions on the merits of social production controlled by social >>foresight.... > >Really? I thought it had more to do with the Blair/Clinton moral crusade >which paints ordinary people as helpless dupes of tobacco advertising and >pathetic victims of nicotine dependency, needing a more re ...

Document Size:	5687
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 21 23:49:29 PDT 1999

642 Stratfor's zero-based intelligence method -- rank: 1000

I have reservations about anyone who is so unwise or so uncritical as to think they are independent of anything. That seems to be the suggestion behind their "zero-based intelligence method" While I acknowledge the detail in Stratfor's research reports I am wary of probable deeply hidden assumptions. I got the following by browsing out from www.stratfor/com >About Stratfor.Com [Extract] Kosovo Crisis Center What began as a slow ramp-up to the Internet quickly took off when Stratfor. ...

Document Size:	11159
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 21 00:12:44 PDT 1999

643 Tobacco capital hit again -- rank: 1000

Big tobacco capital has been punished again for failing to heed Marx's injunctions on the merits of social production controlled by social foresight.... Chris Burford London Judges rule against Big Tobacco Decision raises prospect of huge punitive damages award A state appeals court Wednesday reversed course and revived the threat of a crippling multibillion-dollar punitive damage award against the tobacco industry. Under the ruling, the jury in a landmark class-action case involving 500,000 Flo ...

Document Size:	7195
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Oct 20 15:35:10 PDT 1999

644 World Bank to study K controls -- rank: 1000

At 11:21 20/10/99 -0400, you wrote: >[from the World Bank's daily clipping service] > >WORLD BANK STUDIES MALAYSIAN CAPITAL CONTROLS. Malaysia's use of capital >controls to recover from the regional financial crisis without adverse effects >has prompted the World Bank to study more closely the consequences of >using such >measures, reports Asia Pulse. World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz said >Malaysia's economy was recovering robustly and described the move to us ...

Document Size:	5654
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Oct 20 13:51:41 PDT 1999

645 "Where Are Kosovo's Killing Fields?" -- rank: 1000

At 13:04 19/10/99 -0400, Brett Knowlton wrote: >Chris, > >>Yet that was not the original justification of the NATO attack, which was >>based on the population of Kosovo being deprived of its right to self >>determination (within Yugoslavia - interestingly). > >Perhaps. But the obvious next question is why was NATO (and the US) so >concerned about Kosovar self determination when it (and the US) doesn't >give a rat's a** about Turkish Kurd self determination, o ...

Document Size:	10456
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Oct 19 15:28:00 PDT 1999