The first question to ask about the Recovery Program is, “recovery for whom?” The answer is, for the people who design the Recovery Program and their constituency, the bank lobby. The second question is, what is it they want to recover? The answer is, another Bubble economy, having seen the Greenspan Bubble make them so…
Month: February 2009
Ex-CCP Exec on Global Crisis: Filipinos in ‘Very Pitiful’ Condition
Former Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) vice president and artistic director Nanding Josef has made his views on cultural imperialism known. Now the veteran stage actor and art activist also speaks about economic imperialism, expressing fear that ordinary Filipinos will be heavily burdened by the global financial crisis. BY NOEL SALES BARCELONA Correspondent Bulatlat…
Prices of Most Basic Goods Soared in Last Two Years, Study Shows
Prices of basic goods and services are much higher as of last January, compared to during the same month in 2007 and 2008, a study by the non-government Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) shows. BY NOEL SALES BARCELONA Correspondent Bulatlat Prices of basic goods and services are much higher as of last January, compared to…
Cordi Day Celebrations Decentralized This Year
Come April 23-24, Cordillera Day celebrations will be held in each of the provinces of the Cordillera region. Unlike in the past when a centralized celebration was held in a single host community (except in 1995), this year it will again be decentralized with one or two provinces holding separate, though simultaneous, commemorative activities. BY…
‘Indigenous Water System’ Bridges Lowlands and Uplands
It is ironic that while water flows seemingly endlessly into the faucets and huge tanks of plush subdivisions in the Philippines’ big cities and urban centers, which are far from water sources, those in upland areas whose houses practically seat on vast water reserves half a mile below them often live without water. BY KARL…
World Crisis Serious, Impact on the Philippines, Severe – Economist
“The seriousness of this crisis is such that we cannot expect any solution within the system and certainly not from the US administration, certainly not from the G-20 because within that group, except for a couple of exceptions, is the dominant Washington consensus of the neoliberal agenda, ” said Michel Chossudovsky, a progressive economist and academician.
“In the Philippines, this crisis will be extremely severe because it is imposed upon an existing situation…of dependency, lack of sovereignty, crisis of the real economy, and poverty of the large majority of the population.”
Financial Aid not Skills Trainings Needed by Retrenched Workers, OFWs – KMU
For Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement) executive vice chairman Lito Ustarez, free skills training programs for workers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may seem helpful, but are not what the country needs to enable those who are losing their jobs to cope with the global financial crisis.
Nationwide Petition Signing Held vs Use of SSS Funds for Stimulus Package
BY BULATLAT Heightening the campaign to stop the use of the Social Security System (SSS) funds for the P330 billion economic stimulus package, groups held a nationally-coordinated petition signing and picket protests in front of the offices of the SSS in major cities and provinces today SSS Chief Romulo Neri earlier announced that P12.5 billion…
Issue Guidelines on Tuition Freeze, CHED Told
BY BULATLAT Amid the economic crisis, a legislator called on the the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to provide guidelines to stop any tuition increase for school year 2009-2010. Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño expressed this to CHED officials at the meeting jointly conducted by the House Committees on Higher and Technical Education and Basic…
Group Urges Arroyo: Get Smith; Sack DFA, DILG Heads
BY BULATLAT The multi-sectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) has called on the Arroyo administration to to immediately regain custody of convicted rapist L/Cpl. Daniel Smith and to sack Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno. This call comes on the heels of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that…
Davao Activists Welcome Lozada
BY BULATLAT Activists and religious groups in Davao City welcomed Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, the whistleblower on the controversial National Broadband Network-ZTE deal. Lozada is the speaker of today’s forum dubbed “Truth, Honesty, and Good Governance” organized by the Assumption College of Davao, Lay Forum Philippines, Kahiusahan sa mga Layko sa Mindanao (KALAMI), SCLF-Mindanao, Sisters’ Association…