{"id":41458,"date":"2015-02-12T20:17:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T02:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41458"},"modified":"2015-02-12T07:53:16","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T14:53:16","slug":"the-ultimate-bully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/12\/the-ultimate-bully\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Bully"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hiruni<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Obama: ‘We have to twist arms when countries don’t do what we need them to’<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Vox, the President of the United States said we occasionally have to twist the arms of countries that wouldn’t do what we need them to do if it weren’t for the various economic or diplomatic or, in some cases, military leverage that we had \u2014 if we didn’t have that dose of realism, we wouldn’t get anything done, either.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Obama states that we don\u2019t have a peer\u201d in terms of other countries that could attack or provoke the United States.<\/p>\n

The closest we have, obviously, is Russia, with its nuclear arsenal, but generally speaking they can’t project the way we can around the world. China can’t, either. We spend more on our military than the next 10 countries combined,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p>\n

This means that America spends more money on their Military than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, India, South Korea and Italy COMBINED.<\/p>\n

On another note, according to povertyusa.org more than 46 million Americans live in poverty. It was estimated that 14.5% (or 17.6 million) of US households were food insecure in 2012\u2014meaning there was difficulty at some time during the year to provide enough food for all family members due to lack of resources. 40 percent of Michigan households, and 67 percent of Detroit families, are either under the poverty line or what it identifies as “ALICE” — asset-limited, income-constrained, employed according to the United Way study. Detroit citizens can’t afford the most basic needs like housing and health care, even when family members are employed.<\/p>\n

So let us think for a minute why the US spends so much money on their military when they clearly have more important problems to deal with in their own backyard.<\/p>\n

Here is a clue\u2026.<\/p>\n

A new study by researchers from Princeton and Northwestern Universities found that America’s government policies reflect the wishes of the rich and of powerful interest groups, rather than the wishes of the majority of citizens.<\/p>\n

The researchers examined close to 1,800 U.S. policy changes in the years between 1981 and 2002; then, they compared those policy changes with the expressed preferences of the median American, at the 50th percentile of income; with affluent Americans, at the 90th percentile of income; and with the position of powerful interest and lobbying groups.<\/p>\n

The central point that emerges from the research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.<\/p>\n

It is this same elite class that dictates the rules not only for America, but for the rest of the world. Why? So that they can make more money and secure their wealth for generations to come.<\/p>\n

Let me give you some sickening facts.<\/p>\n

Oxfam International has released a new report called, Working for the Few,\u201d that contains some startling statistics on what it calls the growing tide of inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost half of the world\u2019s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population.<\/p>\n

The wealth of the one percent richest people in the world amounts to $110 trillion. That\u2019s 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

So these are the people who try to teach us \u2018Democracy\u2019. \u2018Democracy is a disguise they use to come into countries like ours and install governments that they can control. The kind of governments that will grant the US easy access to our resources, ports and strategic locations as well as implement their economic policies. They need a huge military budget to acquire weapons that\u2019s intimidating to other countries and to ensure they have a plan B if the \u2018Democratic\u2019 route fails. \u00a0Only a handful of countries have made even a slight attempt to stand up to the US and tell them that they can\u2019t dictate the terms to the entire world.<\/p>\n

Look at countries in Africa like Ghana, DR of Congo and Namibia, these countries are rich in natural resources. These are 3 of 10 countries where the most Diamonds in the world are found, yet the majority of the population in these countries will never get a share of the huge profits made because it\u2019s most likely that a few corporations own these resources.<\/p>\n

Same thing will happen to Sri Lanka if we don\u2019t do anything. The US Oligarchy doesn\u2019t care who is in power as long as the government is subservient to their demands. Take a minute to think, do you really want to be close with a country that would rather spend money on guns and bombs than provide their own countrymen with the basic human needs.<\/p>\n

The US and our Government doesn\u2019t care about you and me. They might give some small concessions to trick you, distract you and win your votes. They will also not bring up any UN Human rights investigations and Eelam issues until after the Parliamentary elections to prevent loss of votes.<\/p>\n

One can argue that the relationship Sri Lanka maintained with China during the Rajapaksa regime is also dangerous. Chinese foreign policy is very different from that of the US. China portrays itself as a Third World country that pursues “an independent foreign policy of peace.” Third World means that China is a poor, developing country and not part of any power bloc such as that around the United States or the socialist bloc formerly associated with the Soviet Union. “Independence” means that China does not align itself with any other major power. Chinese spokesmen say that their country seeks peace so that it can concentrate on development.<\/p>\n

China says its decisions on foreign policy questions derive from the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.<\/p>\n

My warning to fellow Sri Lankans, Be Aware! There are a lot of forces at play in the Sri Lankan political arena. Please don\u2019t allow our country to fall out of the frying pan into the fire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/231279-obama-foreign-policy-power\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.povertyusa.org\/the-state-of-poverty\/poverty-facts\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/gawker.com\/study-the-u-s-is-an-oligarchy-1563363760<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/laurashin\/2014\/01\/23\/the-85-richest-people-in-the-world-have-as-much-wealth-as-the-3-5-billion-poorest\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/america.aljazeera.com\/articles\/2014\/10\/20\/detroit-water-un.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/09\/04\/detroit-poverty-alice-report_n_5760602.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.therichest.com\/expensive-lifestyle\/location\/top-10-countries-with-the-most-diamonds-found\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/afe.easia.columbia.edu\/special\/china_1950_forpol_principles.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hiruni Obama: ‘We have to twist arms when countries don’t do what we need them to’ In a recent interview with Vox, the President of the United States said we occasionally have to twist the arms of countries that wouldn’t do what we need them to do if it weren’t for the various economic or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}