I can't believe what's happening. The market lost more than 100 points in between news segments; going from -380+/- to -527.83 (the moment I took this post's pic).

It's up to -493.90 as I push "post".

So let me get this straight : The US had 750 billion dollars to bail out Wall Street; a sector of the US economy which has been historically controlled by "white" or US Americans of European ascendancy. The US Congress found 750 billion dollars for them and their European and Asian investors. A bailout, by the way, that now said banks are pooh-poohing, lest the US Treasury and tax-payers find out the depths of their accounting infamies. Yet there's no money to pay back reparations to African Americans for the evils of slavery and Jim Crow laws?

Discuss.

[A scene from the movie Birth of a Nation (1915). Image found in Wikipedia under "Lynching in America")

Location

Many bloggers think of Lou Dobbs as a wanker. I have always thought of him as a markets journalist with more than a few interesting things to say.

Can I hear a witness for "faith-based free trade"? Oh yeah, baby, preach it! :

Eye-glazing stuff, international trade. But the consequences of faith-based free-trade will be eye-popping in the disaster it wreaks on our economy and working Americans. The facts are anything but dull: For 30 consecutive years the United States has run a trade deficit, and our trade deficit has surged to record highs in each of the past four years. Our monthly deficits have reached record levels in two of the past three months.

Our current account deficit -- the broadest measure of international trade -- is on track to approach $1 trillion this year. And our current account deficit is almost 7 percent of our nation's gross domestic product, considerably above the threshold at which Federal Reserve studies have acknowledged our economy must make policy adjustments or face major financial crisis. We're borrowing about $3 billion a day just to pay for our imports, and our trade debt now stands at $5 trillion.

We will no longer have to be patient to see the impact of these faith-based policies in free trade. Signs are already beginning to mount that a reckoning is nearing. Our trading partners in Europe are counseling "vigilance" in the currency markets, as their anxiety rises with the value of the Euro against the dollar. For the first time, the Chinese government is publicly expressing its concern about the more than $1 trillion it holds in reserves.

But most disturbing of all are the comments of new Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said in London Tuesday, "A strong dollar is clearly in our nation's interest and I feel very good today about the strength of the U.S. economy," as the U.S. dollar hit a 20-month low against the Euro. Treasury secretaries are not paid for their candor, but Paulson's rejection of our current reality won't bolster his credibility with either our trading partners or the new Democratic-led Congress.

Source

When I travelled earlier this year to Amsterdam and walked into an H&M store, I was hit by the painful realization that having dollars in my pocket didn't and couldn't get me far in the European city. A sweater that costs me 39 dollars in the US costs me 39 euros in Holland. Fair trade for a bargain seeker? Of course not.
 more this way»

I have been absolutely horrifed by how the world is decending into chaos, even as our great leader is giving unwanted massages to the German Chancellor, and how so few people can find the compassion and balance to sympathize with Israelis, Palestinians and Lebanese alike. Our world leaders, from Hamas to Kadima to Hezbollah to Bush, are failing. The result is death and chaos. The solution...just may be you and me and a thousand other regular people who care.

Sometime back I began a project that I called an Integrated, Grassroots Development project for East Africa. People responded well to it and one of the beneficiaries was Kiva.org whose efforts to generate microloans to small businesses originally in East Africa, now globally, were greatly aided by the blogsphere. Inspired by this I tried generating interest in a more global effort, which didn't get as much attention. I now want to apply my ideas regarding Integrated, Grassroots Development to the horrible situation in the Middle Easte. If not now, then when? If not us, then who? It is up to us.
 more this way»

In my ongoing efforts to generate grassroots involvement in creating a better vision for development in Africa, I am passing this along:

Call for Abstracts
The G8�s Response to Africa: Is it Making a Difference?
November 2006 (exact date TBA)
At the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Deadline: August 1, 2006
http://www.gsc.upenn.edu/programs/ip.php#g8

2005 was a monumental year for addressing issues surrounding global poverty, particularly the problems plaguing Africa. While the Live 8 concerts raised public awareness, the G8 summit at Gleneagles attempted to address and eventually resolve these global matters. This "Group of Eight" nations, which initiated its annual meetings in 1975, has been discussing major issues for the past 30 years. These issues have ranged from the building of safe nuclear power plants in Russia to addressing the imminent dangers of global warming. More recently, their attention has turned to Africa. As in previous years, the 2005 summit discussed the G8 Africa Action Plan which includes: improved governance and the building of effective states in Africa; building peace and creating security across the continent; improving opportunities for good health and education; and finally, increased aid and debt relief. The Millennium Development Goals, intended to be fulfilled in 2015, were also raised to the forefront, with a particular emphasis on: halving extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, reducing child mortality by two-thirds, and cultivating a global partnership for development. Reinforcing these goals, the leaders of the G8 agreed to write off certain national debts, double aid to developing countries, provide universal child health care and education, and universal access to HIV/AIDS treatments.
 more this way»

An all-time favorite from our archives,
Madona Latina

You know what really amazes me about this story? That it happened in the Philippines and not the United States. Isn't the developed country supposed to be teaching this to the Third World?

[via 3,738 Mothers Set Breast-Feeding Record - Yahoo! News]:

MANILA, Philippines - Nearly 4,000 mothers set a world record this week for the largest number of women simultaneously breast-feeding their babies in the same place, organizers said.

[...]

The event was also held to raise awareness about the benefits of breast-feeding, organizers said.

Dr. Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF representative to the Philippines, said breast-feeding can help curb malnutrition in children under two years old, provide children with antibodies to fight diseases and boost the country's economy because families save on infant formula.