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Neo-liberalism and the ‘war on terror’ industry http://www.aliran.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1176:neo-liberalism-and-the-war-on-terror-industry&catid=92:200910&Itemid=45

II. The business of terror: neo-liberalism and the ‘anti-terror industry’ Since 2001, following the unilateral declaration of the global ‘war on terror’ by the (then) President of the United States of America , we have witnessed the development and expansion of what can best be described as the ‘anti-terror industry’ worldwide.The ‘war on terror’ is thus an appendage to the arms industry, and like all wars the ‘war on terror’ has meant enormous profit for the producers of arms, security and surveillance technologies as well as governments and political elites who have benefited from the enormous kick-backs and other corrupt dealings associated with the sales and purchase of these weapons. 

III. Muslims at the front-line of neo-liberalism’s ‘war on terror’: Why the defence of Muslim particularity and identity is a defence of all cultural identities At no point in the history of Islam and normative Muslim life have Muslims been as monitored, controlled, patrolled, policed and suspected as they are today. Across the planet Muslims have been typecast, stereotyped and subjected to a mode of ethnic/cultural/religious profiling that would probably never be tolerated by/of any other community in the civilised world. Even in the safe haven of political correctness in the West, any public articulation of anxiety or suspicion about Africans, Jews or other communities would be deemed intolerable and objected to by liberals of all hues.

Yet this intolerance for abuse stops short at the frontiers of the Muslim community, and today it is only in the case of Muslims that slander, stereotyping and typecasting of any kind is tolerated and sometimes even deemed necessary and pragmatic. Why? The answer may lie in the fact that Muslim identity today has been rendered alterior according to the prevailing logic of neo-liberalism itself. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the development of a vast corpus of literature on Islam and Muslims that has sought to locate the basis of Muslim identity in some form of primordial essentialist attachment to a belief system and moral order that was subsequently posed as being outside the discursive economy of neo-liberal values.

Muslims have been scrutinised, studied, pathologised and diagnosed as if they were pathologically, ontologically and even existentially different from the universal subject that is the ideal type of subjectivity within the framework of neo-liberal thought.Muslims have thus been demonised in the name of both the war on terror as well as the neo-liberal consensus as the antipodes to the values of both the free market and the free world. Having painted Muslims in such a corner, how can we ever expect to see any form of meaningful dialogue with Muslims if Muslims are already handicapped with such demonised stereotypes from the outset?

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Media Response to the Growing Influence of the 9/11 Truth Movement, Part II http://coto2.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/media-response-to-the-growing-influence-of-the-911-truth-movement-part-ii/

In the past year, in response to emerging independent science on the 9/11 attacks, nine corporate, seven public, and two independent media outlets aired analytic programs investigating the official account. Increasingly, the issue is treated as a scientific controversy worthy of debate, rather than as a “conspiracy theory” ignoring science and common sense.

This essay presents these media analyses in the form of 18 case studies. Eight countries – Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Russia – have allowed their publicly-owned broadcasting stations to air the full spectrum of evidence challenging the truth of the official account of 9/11.

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Chilling memories of US mass murder http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5585.shtml

February 13 marked 19 years since the US bombing of Baghdad’s two-storey Al Amiriya bomb shelter when 480 civilians were literally incinerated by two American 2,000 pound laser-guided “smart bombs,” designed to penetrate multiple layers of concrete. Most of the victims were Iraqi, but there were also a number of Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians and Egyptians who were consumed by the blasts.The US government initially claimed that it had received intelligence reports that the bunker was not a civilian shelter, but one of Saddam Hussain’s military command centres.

However, the US Department of Defence later admitted that they knew the facility had previously been used for civil defence purposes. No evidence that the site had been used by the military was ever found, but that didn’t deter the White House from accusing Saddam of using “select civilians” as a cover for the facility’s true mission. Like many other US accusations this turned out to be untrue.Today, Al Amiriya shelter stands as a monument to the dead; its walls adorned with photographs of victims, commemoratory brass plaques, prayers and flowers.

Visitors who must steel their emotions before entering often emerge traumatised. Writing about the experience Na’eem Jeenah relates: “A feeling of revulsion and disgust towards these creatures we call human beings and for the ease with which we allow ourselves to become less than human.”Ebrahim Alloush says anyone with “one-tenth of a heart and one percent of a conscience will shake with rage and anguish as they try to hold back the tears.”

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Forget trillions of currency units at stake, try quadrillions http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5586.shtml

“The release of classified information on Clearstream may have repercussions far beyond France and shed light on an international quadrillion dollar scheme involving Israeli-connected gangsters to line the pockets of billionaires, launder cash, defraud banks, and loot national treasuries.”

The neocons and their allies in the corporate media have labeled the Clearstream documents as forgeries. However, neocons, who favor using forgeries to push their own agenda, are also apt to label as “forgeries” any document that threatens their continued grip on power. Because of what Clearstream represents, Sarkozy has also sought to abolish the posts of independent investigative judges in France so they are not prompted to dig further into the world’s shadow economy.

The term quadrillion in relation to worldwide derivatives was also cited in Len Bracken’s guest editorial in WMR on October 9, 2009: “The worldwide notional value of outstanding derivatives is now estimated to be $1.405 quadrillion, up 22 percent from the 2008 level. DK Matai of the Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance notes that a conservative 10 percent default or decline could result in $100 trillion of payouts. Financial institutions, nation states, even blocs such as the European Union will be unable to fund these obligations, often owed to speculators by bankers that grossly mispriced risk . . .

The Soviet Union, by the most reliable accounts, imploded in large part because of its Afghan war. While the United States and its allies now have their crippling campaign in that unforgiving country, the weakest links to the empire controlled by Wall Street and The Square Mile are formed by a quadrillion dollars in derivatives and a hundred trillion dollars of securitized debt.”

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Minority issues: UN expert calls on Colombian authorities to focus on Afro-Colombians’ plight  http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/AZHU-82PN5N?OpenDocument

However, the UN Independent Expert noted, "the vast majority of communities and organizations that I consulted complain that implementation of Colombia's legislation on Afro-Colombian communities remains woefully inadequate, limited and sporadic. Most importantly, where steps have been taken, no real enforcement has followed."

"Displacement from their lands was highlighted as the highest priority issue for many Afro-Colombians whom I met," she said. "Despite the granting of collective titles to some 90 percent of Afro-Colombian ancestral lands, many communities are displaced, dispossessed and unable to live on or work their lands. As one woman told me, 'the laws say all the right things but still, nothing has happened.'" 

"Inconvenient rights" The UN Human Rights Council's envoy drew attention to the fact that many Afro-Colombians have been displaced by 'megaprojects', large-scale economic operations, often involving national and multinational companies, promoted by the government as bringing development and economic gain to the whole of Colombia. "The communities however, have grave concerns about encroachment on their land rights and adverse environmental impacts." 

Ms. McDougall warned that, "in the face of such economic interests and megaprojects it appears that the rights of communities are 'inconvenient rights' and that the laws put in place to protect them are equally inconvenient." Afro-Colombian Women and Violence are among the key issues highlighted by the UN Independent Expert at the end of her mission to Colombia: "Afro-Colombian women have spoken to me of the multiple discrimination they face as Afro-Colombians, women, displaced and poor; a potentially fatal combination that leaves them in a situation of extreme vulnerability."

comment-Neoliberal policies at work.forced displacement of indigenous communities in order to bring in foreign investments...also see...Colombia: Neoliberalism and Violence http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/709

Forced displacement resulting from the expulsion of populations from large areas of the country, particularly indigenous, Afro Colombian and peasant farmer communities http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/content/view/411/73/

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Cuba Provides Special Job Offers to the Physically Impaired http://www.voltairenet.org/article164103.html#article164103

Physically impaired people in Cuba have the opportunity to contribute to society by joining one of 150 special workshops created as a result of efforts to secure jobs to this population group.Such centers emerged with the creation of organizations for the physically impaired, as an initiative stated by Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro in the first congress of the Cuban Association of the Physically Impaired (ACLIFIM), back in the 1980’s.

The workshops provide work opportunities not only to ACLIFIM members but also to the blind and poorly sighted people, the deaf and those with hearing conditions and also to people with learning difficulties, whodo manual work with paper, natural fibers and textiles manufacturing items that are highly demanded. The provinces with the largest number of special workshops are Havana (21), Villa Clara (16), Matanzas (15), Santiago de Cuba (15), and Granma and Holguín with 14 each.Physically impaired people can also work in regular jobs or undertake their own small business.

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Paramilitary death-squad leader captured http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8262-former-paramilitary-death-squad-leader-captured.html

Colombian police have arrested the former leader of a right-wing paramilitary death squad accused of ordering at least 2,500 murders, judicial investigators said on Tuesday.Arnolfo Santamaria, alias "Pipa," was captured by agents of the Prosecutor General's Office in the town of Soacha, where he passed himself off as a witch doctor and vendor of mobile telephones, the office said Tuesday.

Santamaria commanded the southern front of the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), which authorities blame for more than 5,000 crimes in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It operated in the department of Putumayo, bordering Ecuador and Peru.

The militia leader and several of his lieutenants demobilized in March 2006, but later broke the terms of the Justice and Peace Law that governed the dissolution of the AUC units between 2003-06.He was a fugitive for more than three years, accused of murder, kidnapping, forced disappearances and other crimes, including the slaying of a union organizer in the rural municipality of South San Miguel in 2005, officials said.

comment-also see...THIS IS A MUST WATCH - RIGTHWING PARAMILITARISM in COLOMBIA 1 URIBE AUC killers COLOMBIA VIDEO TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH PART 1http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/jAABv-PfTtk/

PART2http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/Fksf6eqli1Y&feature=youtube_gdata/PARAMILITARISMO_en_COLOMBIA_2_URIBE_BUSH_AUC_asesinos_CIA_US.html PART3http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/Fgy4PfjGtWE&feature=youtube_gdata/PARAMILITARISMO_en_COLOMBIA_3_URIBE_BUSH_AUC_asesinos_CIA_U

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Uribe's closest aides probed in wiretap scandal http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8260-uribes-closest-aides-probed-in-wiretap-scandal.html

Colombia's Inspector General's Office is investigating three of President Alvaro Uribe's closest aides in connection with the illegal wiretapping of opposition politicians, journalists and judges, the country's Foundation for the Freedom of Press (FLIP) said Tuesday.

Aside Uribe's personal secretary Bernardo Moreno, press secretary Cesar Mauricio Velasquez and former deputy Defense Minister Jorge Mario Eastman, the IG's Office is investigating four former firectors of intelligence agency DAS and nineteen other government officials.The high government and DAS officials were all instated after Uribe took office in 2002.FLIP director Ignacio Gomez told Spanish press agency EFE he had personally been informed by Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez about the investigations.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the country's Prosecutor General opened criminal investigations against forty DAS officials and indicted another seven so far.In a reaction to ongoing criticism on its respect for the freedom of Press, Colombia's Interior and Justice Ministry released a press statement, stressing that "the Government, since its beginning, has had a clear policy in regards to the protection and security of the citizens and professionals that carry out journalism."

comment-also see...DAS was involved in drug trafficking, Uribe knew: former official http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/5711-das-was-involved-in-drug-trafficking-uribe-know-former-official.html

Uribe stays quiet about DAS wiretap scandal http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/3895-uribe-stays-quiet-about-das-wiretap-scandal.html

Plan Colombia and Beyond » DAS Scandal http://www.cipcol.org/?cat=57

Plan Colombia and Beyond » The new DAS scandal http://www.cipcol.org/?p=752

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Grim update from Córdoba http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1368

The department of Córdoba in northwestern Colombia, home to President Álvaro Uribe’s large cattle ranch, spent most of the past 15 years strongly controlled by paramilitary leaders. It was here that Salvatore Mancuso and the Castaño brothers formed the United Self-Defense Groups of Córdoba and Urabá, then later pioneered the AUC as a national paramilitary umbrella. With little of its territory in dispute, Córdoba under the warlords’ rule was relatively peaceful.

That is not so today. Violence is increasing in Córdoba, especially in the department’s southern half. The paramilitary groups’ heirs are fighting each other for control of territory, legal economic investment projects, and illegal drug trafficking routes. And the civilian population is caught in the the middle.

In October, three church-based humanitarian and conflict-resolution groups sent a delegation to Córdoba to evaluate the security situation. The Christian Center for Justice, Peace and Nonviolent Action (Justapaz), Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and the Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombia (CEDECOL) have produced a 5-page report (PDF) describing what they learned. The Colombian government must view it as a call to action. The “new” paramilitary groups are becoming a major security threat, and the civilian population is being victimized and requires far more attention.

comment-also see...THIS IS A MUST WATCH - RIGTHWING PARAMILITARISM in COLOMBIA 1 URIBE AUC killers COLOMBIA VIDEO TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH PART 1http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/jAABv-PfTtk/

PART2http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/Fksf6eqli1Y&feature=youtube_gdata/PARAMILITARISMO_en_COLOMBIA_2_URIBE_BUSH_AUC_asesinos_CIA_US.html PART3http://www.jahu.net/videos/video/Fgy4PfjGtWE&feature=youtube_gdata/PARAMILITARISMO_en_COLOMBIA_3_URIBE_BUSH_AUC_asesinos_CIA_U

http://uribewarcriminal.blogspot.com/

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Escalate the Peace! - Closing Ceremony Honoring the Victims of U.S. Empire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWoBwy3d1bg

Neither sleet nor drizzle deterred a scheduled antiwar rally on the Texas State University (TSU) Campus in San Marcos on Wednesday, February 10. In the courtyard of the LBJ Amphitheatre, speakers used bullhorns to talk about Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Palestine under a banner that read, Escalate the Peace!

The rally was organized by two TSU student organizations, the Campus Antiwar Movement to End the Occupations (CAMEO) and the Progressive Bobcats Union (PBU).Speakers included Rev. Jim Rigby from St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Austin and Bobby Whittenberg, an antiwar activist who was deployed to Iraq as a Marine. Courtney Glenn, one of the rally organizers, read a poem about returning soldiers. Caitlin Eaves spoke about Yemen. Liz Welch read a passage from Howard Zinn about why we should never lose hope.

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Corporate PACs and lobbyists bundled over 4.6 million for Senate campaigns in 2009 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33016.html

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye has long been a powerful booster of defense industry giants like Lockheed Martin, repeatedly helping out the $40 billion company throughout his long career in Congress. But the relationship has been far from a one-way street.  A lobbyist for Lockheed Martin has bundled scores of smaller donations, directing tens of thousands of dollars into Inouye’s campaign war chest, according to his latest campaign finance reports. Inouye’s situation is hardly unique. Even as President Barack Obama vows to take on special interests, lobbyists continue to bundle millions in donations for lawmakers, often when they have a direct stake in the lawmakers’ policy portfolio.

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Democracy and the Threat of Authoritarianism: Politics Beyond Barack Obama http://www.zcommunications.org/democracy-and-the-threat-of-authoritarianism-politics-beyond-barack-obama-by-henry-giroux

It is generally believed that in a constitutional democracy, power is in the hands of the people, and that the long legacy of democratic ideals in America, however imperfect, is enough to prevent democracy from being subverted or lost. And, yet, the lessons of history provide clear examples of how the emergence of reactionary politics, the increasing power of the military, and the power of big business subverted democracy in Argentina, Chile, Germany and Italy.

In spite of these histories, there is no room in the public imagination to entertain what has become the unthinkable - that such an order in its contemporary form might be more nuance, less theatrical, more cunning, less concerned with repressive modes of control than with manipulative modes of consent - what one might call a mode of authoritarianism with a distinctly American character.[4]

Historical conjunctures produce different forms of authoritarianism, though they all share a hatred for democracy, dissent and civil liberties. It is too easy to believe in a simplistic binary logic that strictly categorizes a country as either authoritarian or democratic, which leaves no room for entertaining the possibility of a mixture of both systems.

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Struggling towns print their own cash http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/struggling-towns-printing-their-own-cash.aspx

In an echo of the Great Depression, local currencies are popping up across the US in attempts to give commerce a lift. Last year, two Detroit tavern owners were bemoaning the fact no one had cash. Then the pair hit on printing their own money, which is perfectly legal provided it doesn't look too much like a U.S. dollar.

Thus was born the Detroit cheer, a local scrip accepted by a handful of businesses. Residents in North Fork, Calif. have just launched the North Fork share, and folks in Piedmont, N.C., spend the newly issued plenty currency. Brooklyn, N.Y., is preparing to launch the torch, while South Bend, Ind., is set to print what it calls MACs. Susan Witt, executive director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, a think tank devoted to decentralized economies, says she gets calls daily from towns across the nation looking to join the movement.

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Iran’s 20% uranium for hospitals is legal http://www.examiner.com/x-25059-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d15-Irans-20-uranium-for-hospitals-is-legal-Obama-like-Bush-lies-to-pimp-for-an-unlawful-war

President Obama is lying to the American public and the world regarding Iran’s lawful right to produce medical isotopes under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.The Non-Proliferation Treaty, initiated by the United States, states: Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty

Article IV: 1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.  

2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.

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Venezuela Sells Products at Fair Prices through Nationalised Hypermarket Chain http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_58535.shtml

At the inauguration, Chavez said that products previously obtained by the old Exito hypermarket, “when speculation reigned in that shop”, could now be sold for up to five times less, for “fair prices”. Discounts will average 40% less than the normal market price, with 14% discounts on already regulated food, 18% discounts on non-regulated products, and other discounts on white products, electronics, and other household items.

“The oligarchy tried to create a scandal over the expropriation of this hypermarket…but the real outrage is what they were committing against their workers and the people. Further, they tried to create a fuss at the world level, that didn’t come to anything,” Chavez said.

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Report: France exposed soldiers to radiation http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8947993

France's military purposely exposed soldiers to a 1961 nuclear test in the Sahara Desert to study how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds, a French news report said Tuesday, citing a classified defense document.

Reacting to the report in Le Parisien newspaper, the government pledged full transparency. Defense Minister Herve Morin denied that soldiers in the April 25, 1961 operation were used as human guinea pigs, but said "it is obvious that today nobody would carry out tests in such conditions."

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Venezuela Barrio Adentro: Health Guarantee http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2010/february/16/latam-10021603.htm

CARACAS - Barrio Adentro Mission, about to turn seven years of free, high quality medical attention, is a guarantee of health for most Venezuelans, who have received nearly 400 million consultations.The program encouraged since April 2003 by President Hugo Chavez has a national networks of facilities including 6,711 community doctor's offices, and 501 centers for integral diagnosis.Over half of the 28 million inhabitants directly benefit from the initiative, supported by Cuba and Venezuelan doctors graduated on the island.The mission's goal is to reach every place in the 23 states of the country and the Capital District.

According to Chavez, Barrio Adentro saved 252,606 Venezuelan lives until the end of 2009. The mission came to save lives and end with exclusion in the sector, he noted.Apart from primary health care in cities and communities, the initiative guarantees patients' rehabilitation and access to advanced health studies. Regarding that, the executive established 555 rehabilitation wards and 27 leading-edge technology centers, with costly equipments.With the mission, the government intends to increase services and its quality. Barrio Adentro is divided into three projects: I for primary care, II for specialized attention, and III hospital care.

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Inverted Totalitarianism Fighting Corporate Rape of US http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24694.htm

American journalist and Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges told RT the United States has developed a new form of corporate totalitarianism. Video By Russia Today 

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GUATEMALA: Anti-Mine Activists Encouraged by Canadian Ruling http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50350

Ecologists in Guatemala see a recent ruling by Canada's Supreme Court, which ordered Canadian mining companies to carry out rigorous environmental assessments, as a positive precedent that could help improve environmental controls over the mining industry in this Central American country."The ruling exerts a kind of pressure for Canadian companies to live up to legal standards and not try to conceal the real impacts of their activities on the environment," Uriel Miranda, legal adviser to the Comisión Pastoral de Paz y Ecología (COPAE - Pastoral Commission on Peace and Ecology), told IPS

The legal advisers of environmental organisations in Guatemala and other countries are studying the reach of the Supreme Court decision, as well as the possibility of bringing legal action in the courts in Canada for irregularities that Canadian corporations may commit in other countries."We are analysing whether there is jurisdiction to file lawsuits for shortcomings in environmental impact reports contracted by Goldcorp, which has two mining projects here and exploration permits for other mines," said Miranda. The director of the School of Ecological Thought (Savia), Magalí Rey Rosa, told IPS that the Supreme Court ruling set an important legal precedent. 

"It should now be possible to turn to a Canadian court to sue companies from that country for failing to do what the verdict ordered them to do," said the activist. She added that the ruling could also serve as a starting-point to assess the environmental impact studies and procedures of other mining companies, like the Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, owned by Vancouver, BC-based Skye Resources. Rey Rosa said the damages already caused by the mining industry in Guatemala are incalculable. "It has brought serious social conflicts, water sources have dried up, houses have suffered cracks and splits, while it has left us a few miserable dollars in return," she complained.

In Latin America, Goldcorp also operates mines in Argentina, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Other Canadian mining companies active in the region are Meridian Gold, Glencairn Gold and Barrick Gold, which runs the controversial Pascua Lama mine along the border between Chile and Argentina in the Andes mountains, as well as mines in Peru that face stiff opposition from environmentalists and local communities.

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The Economic Elite vs. the People of the United States of America: Part I  http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/the-economic-elite-vs-the-people-of-the-united-states-of-america-part-i/

I: Causalities of Economic Terrorism, Surveying the Damage The devastating numbers across-the-board on the economic front are staggering. I’ll go through some of them here, many we have already become all too familiar with. We hear some of these numbers all the time, so much so that it appears as if we have already begun “to normalize the unthinkable.” You may be sick of hearing them, but behind each number is an enormous amount of individual suffering, American lives and families who are struggling worse then they ever have.

America is the richest nation in history, yet we now have the highest poverty rate in the industrialized world with an unprecedented amount of Americans living in dire straights and over 50 million citizens already living in poverty. The government has come up with clever ways to down play all of these numbers, but we have over 50 million people who need to use food stamps to eat, and a stunning 50% of US children will use a food stamp to eat at some point in their childhood. Approximately 20,000 people are added to this total every day. In 2009, one out of five US households didn’t have enough money to buy food. In households with children, this number rose to 24%, as the hunger rate among US citizens has now reached an all time high. 

We also currently have over 50 million US citizens without healthcare. 1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2009, a 32% increase from 2008. As bankruptcies continue to skyrocket, medical bankruptcies are responsible for over 60% of them, and over 75% of the medical bankruptcies filed are from people who have healthcare insurance. We have the most expensive healthcare system in the world, we are forced to pay twice as much as other countries and the overall care we get in return ranks 37th in the world. In total, Americans have lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings since the economic crisis began and $13 trillion in the value of their homes. During the first full year of the crisis, workers between the age of 55 – 60, who have worked for 20 – 29 years, have lost an average of 25% off their 401k. “Personal debt has risen from 65% of income in 1980 to 125% today.”

Over five million US families have already lost their homes, in total 13 million US families are expected to lose their home by 2014, with 25% of current mortgages underwater. Deutsche Bank has an even grimmer prediction: “The percentage of ‘underwater’ loans may rise to 48 percent, or 25 million homes.” Every day 10,000 US homes enter foreclosure. Statistics show that an increasing number of these people are not finding shelter elsewhere, there are now over 3 million homeless Americans, the fastest growing segment of the homeless population is single parents with children.