Working class hero Lula says capitalism is dead

[Judi Lynn]

Working class hero Lula says capitalism is dead
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
The Associated Press
Monday, February 7, 2011; 1:05 PM

DAKAR, Senegal -- Brazil's first working class president and an icon of the downtrodden said Monday that the global financial crisis proves capitalism is broken.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also said it was time for affluent countries to begin paying attention to nations like Senegal, ranked as one of the world's poorest.

"For too long, rich countries saw us as peripheral, problematic, even dangerous," said Silva, who stepped down last year with one of the highest approval ratings in his country's history, "Today we are an essential, undeniable part of the solution to the biggest crisis of the last decade - a crisis that was not created by us, but that emerged from the great centers of world capitalism."

His speech marked the second day of the six-day World Social Forum, an annual counterpunch to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/07/AR2011020703386.htmlWorking class hero Lula says capitalism is dead
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
The Associated Press
Monday, February 7, 2011; 1:05 PM

DAKAR, Senegal -- Brazil's first working class president and an icon of the downtrodden said Monday that the global financial crisis proves capitalism is broken.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also said it was time for affluent countries to begin paying attention to nations like Senegal, ranked as one of the world's poorest.

"For too long, rich countries saw us as peripheral, problematic, even dangerous," said Silva, who stepped down last year with one of the highest approval ratings in his country's history, "Today we are an essential, undeniable part of the solution to the biggest crisis of the last decade - a crisis that was not created by us, but that emerged from the great centers of world capitalism."

His speech marked the second day of the six-day World Social Forum, an annual counterpunch to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/07/AR2011020703386.html

[social_critic]

1. Senegal? It's controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, so Fox news will throw a fit

OK, let me get this straight. Lula is in Senegal, and he wants the world to pay attention to it. So here it goes (got this from Wikipedia):

"Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres (76,000 sq mi), and has an estimated population of about 14 million. The climate is tropical with two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season."

"The first kingdoms were created around the 7th century, the Tekrour, the Namandirou kingdom and then the Djolof with distant ties to the Ghana empire. In the 14th century the Djolof kingdom became a powerful empire having regrouped the Cayor, the Baol, the Sine and Saloum, the Waalo, the Fouta-Toro and the Bambouk kingdoms. The empire was founded by Ndiadiane N’diaye who was able to form a coalition with many ethnicities but collapsed around 1549 with the defeat and killing of Lele Fouli Fak by Amari Ngone Sobel Fall.

Senegal is a republic with a presidency; the president is elected every five years as of 2001, previously being seven years, by adult votes. The current president is Abdoulaye Wade, re-elected in March 2007.

Senegal has more than 80 political parties. The bicameral parliament consists of the National Assembly, which has 120 seats.

Currently Senegal has a democratic political culture, being one of the more successful post-colonial democratic transitions in Africa."

This is probably caused by the 80 parties and 120 seats solution. Each party gets on the average 1.5 reps in the Assembly. This means they seldom pass any laws, and party leaders lack the clout to be bribed.

I can assume this information has already been given to Glenn Beck, who will probably bring it up with Gates at Defense. Hillary will be primed for action, and the Republicans in Congress will claim Senegal is a heaven for muslim fanatics who want to destroy Israel. Therefore, I've already figured out we need to start building refugee camps in Gambia, because our bombing campaign is going to drive lots of them muslims out of there. What we need to do is make sure Osama bin Laden doesn't land his marines on Senegal's beaches before our guys get there. As for Lula, we need to pin a medal on him for letting us know about this conspiracy.

[joshcryer]

2. I'm amused that the word "dead" doesn't show up anywhere in the article (except the headline).

I'm also somewhat amused (and don't take offense, I think you bring balance even if you're an agent of the CIA or whatever) that you cite the Muslim Brotherhood in Senegal. As if that's a dirty word or something (the brotherhoods are like Christian denominations in some sense, they have their own 'sects' some agents of evil, like Pat Robertson, some can be agents for good, red letter Christians, etc).

If we want to criticism go after him for more corrupt-seeming behavior, like giving bags of money away.

A wise thing someone once said to me, and it has held true to this day (to the point where I do not believe democracy is necessary on a "global" or "national" level except in extreme circumstances (world war, etc).

Democracy is designed to be inefficient, the more inefficient it is, the more predictable.

And that, my friend, is why I believe you have made at least a somewhat persuasive argument for Senegal, though I cannot say how the country is actually set up (the power structure), so it could be premature to say that. I'd rather live in an inefficient democracy than an efficient dictatorship any day.