Media Spin and the Hidden Poverty in America

In #15 read <<< However, I don`t agree that the masses given proper social consciousness, over time can come up with a better system than one which produces the inequalities that we see in the current system >>> as

<<< However, I don`t agree that the masses given proper social consciousness, over time cannot come up with a better system than one which produces the inequalities that we see in the current system >>>

In other words, I am saying they can in all probability come up with a better system than the elites who have their own groups concern foremost before that of the masses as a whole

M.Asadi thanks for penning the article and it sets you thinking about America nation.
I have not been to usa but it appears to have namy contradictions in america as any counrty including Pakistan. I do not understnad some times as sure there is more to lines, betwwen unwritten lines.

I think there is flaws in your observations about usa and I acn be wrong. I find same type of mistakes in Mrs. S. Shah also , or can say most left little socialist type people.

You always kind of refer to usa as Emperical power. I look at american history it appears exactly reverse, it appears as EMPIRE BREAKING MACHINE.
America started as experiment of people fleeing empires of European countires. They got help from people who hated british emperial power and that developed antiemperial trend in usa.
They supported demise of kings of Europe. American president told openly to european powers not come to Americas- Mr. Manroe Fatwa. That stopped expansion of spanish power they took action against spanish in Cuba and Philipine and ended even dreams of Spanish empire. They destoyed austrohungarian empire and Turkish empire in 1st world war by entering war and made sure Kaisar was to to pasture and was kicked as king of germany and Germany lost all colonies in Africa. Then second war they destroyed Nazi empire and Japanese empire and put pressure on English people for staring of liquidation of British empire and were higly critical of british, french, duch empires. Then they waged war on russian empire a truely last european empire and with help of pakistan destroyed last big european empire and millions of muslims first time saw self rule unfortunately they returned to native state as dictorial regimes not fault of america.
They do not necessarily every time send army but has lots of means to put pressure. Some times they let little empires do down by inaction. Pakistan overseas terroraties were allowed to form new country by allowing india to act as midwife. Same thing in Indonesia they forced Temor to go away peacefully. Then they demolished surbian empire by bomobing. In afghanistan and Iraq they sent army to remove oppressive emperial style regimes. Today more muslims have received more freedom in Afghan and Iraq than they had in last 10,000 years. In general american govt is sympathetic to oppressed people. At proper time they may force India and China empires to give freedom to Kashmir and Tibet and Ughars ( Easter Turkestan), They proded middle eastern autocracies and they are responding to american suggestion by reforms. Even Pakistani people are encouraged by president Bush when he said election should be free of fraud.
They made sure dark skinned people are given rights in south africa, by imposing sanctions even though as usual dark and brown people made mess and more crime and corrouption had more under dark mandella but its not americas fault that dark and brown peolple can govern. American pressures make israel yield.
It strange they throw bombs by air machine at same time give lots of food. And they are generous people even they have poverty they help others. Like PLO or Pakistani dislike america but plo is given food and help by usa. Or it was america who wrote so many checks for earthquake help and american young boys and girls came to help us even though people hate them. They are providing largest help to aids affected africa still its going up death but its not america fault black or not following old style morality in sex thing.
They are giving 20 to 30 billions of dallars to world. They are not bad people. Only country providing shelter and citizenship to even dark and brown people .
Kindly look at whole picture. I feel with all problems you want America at top or China or Russia ?
Be kind to americans and do not redicule their contribution to world poverty reduction like mr. Bill get giving billions of dollars.
I think all you paint bad picture is not whole canvas. IF they just help americans only then Kashmiris will die or palestanians will suffer. Amerca is generous to world, she may be arrogent but facts are true. America is empire breaking machine and in general poverty reducer world wide.
But other wise your article is fine and I like you combative style.
Your critics can learn lot by reading your articles acarefully and studying.
good day

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Re: # 17
[It strange they throw bombs by air machine at same time give lots of food. And they are generous people even they have poverty they help others]

Do sonay ka niwaala, daikho shayr kee nazar - provide the morsel of gold but watch like the lion.

Re: # 18

Sir you points are well taken. I do not know much about Amerika but lots of pakistani boys and girls are living happily and has nice house also.

I think people should find out, if there is shortage of food why they are fattest people on world. May be poor as usual are lazy and do not pick up food by thinking but by taste, tongue controlls. I agree problems are poverty will be always with us I guess.

if you are looking for poverty, go outside america. go to africa. go to asia. go to latin america. where babus like masadi rule.

but that would be asking too much of masadi!!

Re: # 9

``This gradation of society is not designed by the rapidly disappearing middle class or the poor, it is designed by the elite at the very top, which Mr. ballukhan effortlessly absolves of all crime and why? So that their official mythology of `protecting the American people` by fighting a `war on terror` can be pursued. ``

I have hit the right nerve of Asadi saheb.............He sometimes acts like an apologist for the Islamists despite his Hadith bashing stance against the mullahs............because he started making too many assumptions in reading on what I hold and what I do not............I obviously pointed about the need to turn monolithic categories of `poor` or `Elites` into infinitely stratified layers of relations of power.............I pointed towards the fact that there are layers of power `Elites` within the the category of `poor`..........that is why Asadi`s theories are turning into an attempt at propaganda based upon stereotyping and name calling of the US society.................it is time to deconstruct these polarities of `Elites` versus `Poor` in order to see the disbalances within the relation of power tend to be contextual in a social relations.........I doubt Asadi would understand any of this I am trying to tell him..........

....and Let me repeat again for his benefit- America needs to look carefully and devote more energies on its poor, the discrimination aginst black and other minorities, racism etc. , but it also needs to kick the butt of these theocratic thugs like OBL and his clones who have illusions of theocratic grandeaur ..........to think that middle class does not use cheap labour is a patently false statement because every small enterprise run by the `non elite` middle class entrepreneur is based upon exploitation of the cheap labour of those below them in the ladder................and these enterprises make up almost half of the service sector...

I hope Asadi is also joining issues with the anti arms lobby for all the defence spendings of countries like including those of the likes of Pakistan, Iran and others which spend money for their poor in pursuing the theocratic aims of their government like the ``coming of the mahdi`` or ``making a strong Islamic nation....................

.............bubba`s life .......

...... bubba lives in macomb county, michigan, the home of the reagen democrats ......... he belongs to the uaw and has worked for generous motors for the past thirty years ........ every day he gets up, has his breakfast of eggs and bacon (somimes he has leftover steak from the outback steakhouse) and sets off to work in his one year old eight cylinder suv (bubba is a republican and doesn`t care about the environment) ................ on the way to work he picks up a newspaper which he is going to read forty seconds out of each minute (he puts a piece of trim on a car and it takes him about 15 seconds to do it - so he has about 45 seconds to rest before the next car comes down the line) .......... six years ago some indian engineer (goddam those indians !) had tried to rebalance the line to make bubba work 50 secs out of a minute (some japanese crap called `takt` time) ........... anyway, bubba was too smart for the chinks and indoos and he had his committee man file a grievance and that was that ....... six years later, he still has time to read the paper, and sometimes he can also finish the crossword puzzel .........mrs bubba thinks he is an intellectual ........ but he comes in every weekend to finish his work and collect time and a half; sometimes he gets double time .............. so he works two - three tops - hours a day and makes about 80K a year plus full health care, dental, vision and a great pension plan ..............

....... his wife works on the line at the chrysler plant across town and she also makes 70K a year ........ they live in a 4000 sq ft colonial with a three car garage and also have a cottage up-north that they use in the summer - sometimes bubba goes up there snowmobiling in the winter with his buddies .........last year one of his friends, billy, had too much to drink and smashed into a pine tree at sixty miles an hour - it was really sad, but the funeral was beautiful ..............bubba also has a 40 thousand dollar motor home, a cottage and a thirty foot searay that he loves to race on the lake ........ bubba loves to hunt and his company, generous motors, shuts down the plant for the deer hunting season ......... he also likes to fish, but they don`t shut down the plant for that so he has to call in sick once in a while when the salmon are running up north .............

....... but bubba has always been considered as part of the poor blue collar working class that is being exploited by the capitalist pigs that run corporate america ....... michael moore even made a movie about him and his ex-boss roger ...................now america hating muslim preachers like maulana masadi and frustrated communists like saminasha are taking up the cudgels on his behalf because, finally after almost thirty years, the gravey train is coming to a halt and generous motors is going broke ......... bubba is sorry that he voted for reagen and bush when the times were good ......... but now the bank might take away his motor home, his cottage, his beloved searay and, god forbid, his two kawasaki snowmobiles ........ bubba is truly sorry and promises to vote for the democrats in the next election .......

Re: # 4

May be I should move in next to hamidm`s plumber - Everybody seems to have a big house up there.... in norther VA - they ask you for an arm and a leg for a 2000 sq ft townhouse.....

Re: # 24

mohar

.... wait till bubba moves back to the trailer park when gm files for bankruptcy - you should be able to pick up his 4000 sq ft house for abut 350 ........ i am sure somone will berate you for profiting from bubba`s misery, but don`t worry about it because bubba had a good time while it lasted and as long as they don`t take away his big screen tv and his lazy boy he will be okay - the price of chips and beer is not expected to go up significantly ..........

#13 by masadi on April 1, 2006 9:34pm PT

`There is no Quran mentioned in this article, so whatever conclusions you are drawing are based on your own preconceived stereotypes. The people who benefit from this system, the tiny elite have no motivation or desire to end this suffering by millions, that is why you see a more or less stable poverty rate regardless of economic cycles or the person in power, that was one of the points of this article as well.`

masadi genius,

Thanks for informing kaka that quran/allah and other nonsense was not on your mind when you wrote this article!

However, kaka has been talking about rich people (ha ha!) like hamidm and kaka who do not see significant problems with the current system. Why should such people do anything about the poverty that you described.

On the flip side, do you think kaka and hamidm could be poor people who are too lazy to understand what ails their middle class ways? In that case, why incite fear and insecurity about their cosy ways? What benefit is it of you? Jihad, is it?

The thing is masadi, you have been trained in mouthing inane bakvaas which makes it hard for you to ask simple questions. That might be aother reason you are an islamist..

#4 by hamidm2 Re: # 1

Hamidm is right. America is a land of opportunity. But only for those who can grasp it when it comes. Fair enough. It`s just that a lot of people miss that opportunity altogether. These are those people who wait for it to knock on their doors and lay it in their laps rather than going after it. America is competitive. The ones who can run faster get the prize. Others are left behind. Is that fair? I don`t know. But their system guarantees poor people and rich people.

The diversity of America dawned on me during a six-month sojourn in B`Ham Alabama. Suitably inebriated, I left a message on one of the services that I wanted a tall girl because I liked to do it standing up. I got so many messages that it is unbelievable. Needless to say I checked all of them out. To cut the long story short, one of them was just simply beutiful. Half-Cherokee and half-WASP. Lived in a real run-down neighbourhood. When I went to pick her up her mother shouted at her. I only found out her age when the bar refused her drinks. She had looked older to me because she was ....ahem ... well developed, and she warned me she was a jailbait but I couldn`t care less. As it turned out the next morning, when I gave her twenty bucks for the cab because I was too far gone to drive, she said her step-brother was coming to pick her up but she could use the money anyway for a urine test because she was scared her step-brother had got her pregnant. She AND the step-brother did it all for a urine test.

That is America too.

#23 Hamidm

Excellent post.

Southern Bubbas, working for Japanese manufacturers, get half of the hourly rates and no union protection, and they vote republican. The spoiled northerns vote democrat, who claim to protect “working class” people.

What some of the folks do not realize is that capitalism is an on going refresh process, where old and inefficient processes have to die and new more efficient ones replace it. There is nothing wrong with 10% or so relatively poor people. Food stamps and Medicaid protect these people from starving while they are working on their renewal strategy. However, if they are morally corrupt to waste their food stamp dollars on beer and potato chips, they do deserve to starve.

While one can always find faults with any system, a better economic model has not been worked out yet. Soviet model has failed and so has Taliban. Time will tell whether Iranian model can build a more equitable, open and productive system when they run out of their oil.

Aunt K and her husband S moved over to America abotu 3 years ago with their 2 teenage kids. They grew up and lived in the village in Punjab all their life. The village Aunt K grew up in became part of Ludhiana and her parents land was sold by the square foot...unfortunately it happened when she was college age...meaning the money wa splnety and no one felt the eed tosend her to college. She learned to say yes , not, and thank you by 10th grade along with how to sign her name in abc.

Uncle S was even more interesting creature...he is famous for sleeping every afternoon for 3/4 hours day for whole of his life...that was during his high school classes, exams and later on his work in the farm. Hardest work he ever did was drive the tractor to plough the fields about one month in a year....as things happened Aunt K and Uncle S were made for each other...both got ultra lazy by the time tey reach 40`s...when they came to california at the age of 45- 50 years, they were hopeless....they had no skills, no knowledge of language and on uncle S`s part no ambitions either...he was happy for first 3 months eating his paranthas and sleeping all day long...he loved air conditioning.

All relatives who were already settled here, thought there is no way these two can settle here. home prices were rising and these two slobs have never really worked in life. by Aunt K was ambitious inspite of her middle age, over weight and lazy outlook...she decided she wants her own house like her sisters some day...she started working a paper factory folding and packing paper......it was hard work for her....8 hours and she will be on bed for next 12....after few weeks she pushed uncle S to do soemthing too...it was suggested only thing he knows is driving tractor....so may eb he shoudl upgrade his skills and learn how to drive truck.......his driving license is another story...he never gave a test written or otherwise but some how got one....some generous brother gave him the job.....soon he was driving truck without reading the boards on the highways...he drove mostly by his reference to the landscape....rather than road signs....but it worked....soon both started workign 12 horus a day...few months alter it was 12 hours, 7 days......they got little slimmer and healthier but complained continuously of the tough life of america while recounting stories of their aishfull life in India.

few months ago I heard they bought a house...it was $420K....two high schoolers, lazy bumbs looks well settled after 3 years....they like their home....girl is married, boy is finally learning to drive the truck along with dad....aunt K thinks day her son starts driving truck, she might retire from the paper factory...that is more than hamidm or anyone of us could expect for ourselves...now uncle S is very happy about america...he does not want to go back to Punjab....he says it is peaceful and trouble free here...koi kutt khana nai ...apna kamm karo te araam karo. he says it is hardwork but it is worth it.

is their any moral of this story?...dunno...I was not thinking about any moral while writing it...yeah the same way masadi was not thinking about quran while writing this article.;-)

#27 by zeemax on April 2, 2006 1:25pm PT


Hamidm is right. America is a land of opportunity. But only for those who can grasp it


comrade masadi confuses equality of opportunity with fairness of outcome..

he needs to tell us why the saudi princes have luxurious yatchs while saudi per capita income has fallen...

#18 by kaptain on April 1, 2006 11:58pm PT

check out the double chin on the lady with the ``we want food`` sign..

I`ve volunteered at food banks and I can tell you for a fact that people don`t go hungry if they know where to get the food..

swing by a food bank in fairafax county during thanksgiving..the turkey they serve is better than what they serve at silver diner...