Scheca02's List: Politics

• The Mexican #YoSoy132 movement started this past May in response to a speech by Mexican presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico. Students organised in protest of the candidate's record on human rights, but mainstream media downplayed student activism, claiming that the students had been paid to protest (protest footage here). In response, students posted films of themselves on YouTube to show that they were genuine students, tagging those films with the hashtag #YoSoy132. This was the beginning of a social movement which made it out onto the streets, captured the attention of national and international press, and was successful at changing the shape of the Mexican presidential race.
• The #YoSoy132 movement had both online and offline components which often merged. Andrés shows us signs from demonstrations which feature printed screenshots of Facebook. If you were on social media, you might have thought that Peña Nieto was going to lose the election. You would have been wrong. Enrique Peña Nieto was declared winner of the presidential election on the 31st of August, the result of largely offline election campaigning.
• #YoSoy132 happened in the lead up to a Mexican presidential election; it's very natural for social movements to arise in Mexico when elections are held. Next, the leading candidate, it was easy to motivate protest against Enrique Peña Nieto. For 70 years, the construction of the Mexican state has been fundamentally shaped by his party, PRI.
• Antonio argues that youth are given no priority by government and civil society, giving them even more reason to protest. #YoSoy132 began in private universities, which is unusual. Private universities are thought to be distanced or uninvolved from politics. It's usually the public universities which have tradition of political involvement in Mexican and local issues.
• While many social movements target mass media, #YoSoy132 seems to have focused more than others on challenging mainstream media. In addition to critique, these movements are sometimes able to break into mainstream media.
• Mayo argues that contemporary movements aren't issue-based: they are fundamental critiques on the nature of current political systems. Even though some happen in connection to an election, they are ongoing movements that outlast the election. Both mobilisations happened in May. These movements are non-partisan, challenging the current political parties. Both movements challenge traditional media as gatekeepers of the public debate.

  • I agree with the statement that contemporary movements do not have to be issue based, but rather use movements to critique politics, and politicians, and to let the public voice be heard within a massive democratic system. 
• Digital communications can also speed up a movement; using SMS and Twitter, they can respond to state actions very quickly. Technologies have also been used to coordinate much more targeted local movements in Spain, offering opportunities large and small for people to get involved

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• Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, holds presidential elections on Sunday. It’s been more than three years since a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire, triggering anti-government demonstrations that would spread throughout the Middle East. But while several other countries also overthrew their dictators, Tunisia is the only nation to have built a democracy that still endures.
• • I realize that I"ve mostly just highlight most of the article, but I feel that everything said is important. This is what happened after the Arab Spring, and politically here are the results of a social movement.

• Here is how the Arab Spring revolutions played out in other countries:

  LIBYA

  Libyans celebrated when Western-backed opposition forces toppled Moammar Gaddafi. but the country is now anarchic, with warring militias controlling different cities.

  EGYPT

  The Muslim Brotherhood came to power in the elections after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. But the Brotherhood was ousted in a 2013 coup, and a former military officer, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, now leads the country.

  SYRIA

  Pro-democracy protests led to a civil war. President Bashar al-Assad has hung on to power, and the opposition is increasingly dominated by radical Islamists.

  BAHRAIN

  An anti-government uprising led by the country's Shiite majority was crushed by regional security forces backing the country's Sunni monarchy. Shiites continue to demonstrate for greater political rights.

  YEMEN

  President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced out in 2012 following large protests, but the political transition has run into repeated obstacles. The country has been torn lately by fighting between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and al-Qaeda-linked militants.

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• Bolivia has the highest percentage of indigenous peoples in Latin America (62% according to UNDP, 2006). Of the indigenous peoples, it is estimated that the majority are Quechua (50.3%) and Aymara (39.8%). To a lesser degree, although distributed across extensive territories, are lowland peoples such as the Chiquitano (3.6%) and Guaraní (2.5%)
• • THe International Labour Organization are working with indigenous Bolivia's for labour and working rights of natives. 
• Bolivia also made the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples binding as national law, and the 2006-2007 constitutional process included a high level of indigenous participation. Indigenous peoples have demanded the inclusion of First Nations in the State’s new pact, defining Bolivia as a multinational State.
• Indigenous groups have gained strength in recent decades, reclaiming their identity as indigenous peoples and First Nations, and increasing their levels of organisation and participation. There are currently 5 major indigenous centres grouping the lowland and highland peoples, landless peasants and women.

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• Middle East has become a focal point of the world arms buildup.
• arsenal grows, as the United States, the Soviet Union, France, Britain and others ship billions of dollars worth of weapons to the countries there. During the 1970s, while the world arms trade doubled, Middle East arms imports rose fourfold (in constant dollars)
• region receives over half of all arms deliveries to the Third World, and more than a quarter of all world arms shipments.
• Parallel to the growth of Middle East arms imports is a rapid increase in military expenditures. In less than 20 years, these have grown tenfold in value -- from $4.7 billion in 1962 to $46.7 billion in 1980, nearly nine times the world average.
• The best indicators of the militarization of the region are the time-series estimates of expenditures, equipment and manpower. These are necessarily selective: Medium tanks, for instance, are only the most easily identifiable of many different types or armor/artillery. The aggregate figures do not measure the increase in sophistication of weapons sent to certain countries. Nor do these figures take account of vast differences in qualify of training or the general skill and education level of the society in question.
• The pattern and trends presented are nevertheless unmistakable and alarming. Military manpower grew by 64 percent from 1972 to 1982, rising from 2.1 million to 3.5 million. If Israel’s battle-ready reserves of some 300,000 are included, the Middle East now has almost twice the total military manpower of the US, and is approaching the 4.7 million total for the US and all NATO countries except Turkey. During the same period, operational combat aircraft in the region grew by more than 50 percent, from 2,900 to 4,400, surpassing the size of the combined European NATO air forces. As for medium tanks, the main battle armor unit, the regional arsenal grew by 140 percent, from 11,250 to 27,000, considerably more than all US and NATO medium tanks combined.
• Conflicts between states in the region have been the major element in the regional arms race. The state of war between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries is only the most visible of these. Iran under the Shah embarked on the largest military buildup in the region. Iran’s grab for the role of regional gendarme, and the messianism of the Islamic Republic after 1979, have been one key factor in the arms race in the Gulf
• Local military establishments have also grown in response to internal political conflicts. Armed movements of national minorities have had the largest impact, especially the Kurdish movement in Iraq and Iran, the Eritrean movement in Ethiopia and the Western Sahara war of independence against Morocco.
• The explosion of oil revenues in the region accelerated the Middle East military buildup. Many states had vast financial resources at their disposal and few plans for investing or spending them. Military expenditures bought prestige and apparent power, with much less social disruption on local societies than economic development programs.
• Data on the policies of the arms suppliers is partial and unsatisfactory. The United States government is probably the single most important source of information. What data it releases, and in what form, is determined by larger political objectives. For example, a recent report from the State Department lays major responsibility for Third World militarization to the Soviet Union. This is done by breaking out base construction, co-production financing and military training from the US totals as a “uniquely large element” of US programs in the Third World. Costs of US troops stationed in Third World countries -- also a uniquely large element of US military posture -- are excluded altogether from the totals.
• Information on other countries’ sales comes from what independent sources like SIPRI can cull from the public record, and from whatever classified intelligence data the US government decides to release. Even US government data on US military sales is often inconsistent from year to year. This information is generally released in terms of dollar value.
• The standard repayment period is 12 years. Egypt, Israel, Sudan, Greece, Turkey and Somalia have special 30-year schedules. A smaller amount of FMS Financing is covered through direct Pentagon credits, which in FY 1982 were available only to Israel and Egypt. Over the 1974-1983 period, Israel has had $5.9 billion of its direct credits “forgiven.” Egypt and Sudan have been “forgiven” $600 million and $50 million respectively.
• • Producers are anyone who can get the blueprints that create the controband goods, or even worst, the goods are stolen. The buys.. according to this article are the middle east. 
• A third category of significant US military assistance in the Middle East is Economic Support Funds (ESF). This program of loans and grants is administered as economic aid by the Agency for International Development, but its purpose is “to promote economic or political stability in areas where the US has special security interests.”
• None of the official declassified sources of information on arms sales provide accurate data on weapons and munitions actually delivered or on order. In an effort to provide a more concrete sense of what weapons are going where in the region’s military buildup, we have constructed a preliminary register of US deliveries and orders for present major recipients of US arms in the region. Information is not available to provide a similar account of deliveries and agreements of the Soviet Union, France and Britain. This means, for instance, that the arms supplies which have fueled the Iraq-Iran war in the Gulf are completely absent from this register. Most of Iran’s weapons came from the US prior to 1979.

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• • I believe on of the key issues is that fact that everyone is entitled to "safe" food. Food for everyone, but not at the cost of the planet. 
• While pollution is almost everywhere, certain communities are burdened with a disproportionate number of facilities that fill the air, soil, and water with contaminates. Typically found in communities of color and low-income communities, industrial polluters such as landfills, trash incinerators, coal plants, and toxic waste dumps affect the well-being of residents.

• They act to right the wrongs of environmental racism, which is typically due to the intended or unintended consequences of regulations that may be selectively enforced or not enforced at all, resulting in negative impacts on people of color.

   

  When they hear about industrial pollution, people often think about factories with billowing smokestacks. However, the food industry, with its factory farms and slaughterhouses, can also be considered a major contributor of pollution that affects the health of communities of color and low-income communities, because more often than not they locate their facilities in the areas where these people live.
• Corporations may also locate to these rural areas either believing that the residents do not have the political will and won’t present obstacles, or that these low-income residents need the jobs and will not complain. Environmental Justice activists consider the latter reason to be a form of economic extortion—having to accept the negative health consequences and adverse effects on the environment in order to have a job. This scenario is fortunately not a given with more frequent challenges being made to these injustices.
• Viruses can be transmitted from the workers in these facilities to their families and communities. Moreover, undocumented workers in meatpacking facilities and factory farms are often less willing to participate in health programs that are in place for fear of legal consequences
• • Framing process: The world is in a tough situation but that doesn't mean we should count people out. We can make it better for everyone. In saving the world we should be concerned for everyones lives, not just those who can afford to counter pollution. 
• Water pollution is another major factor for those living in agricultural areas where the residents “rely on groundwater from community wells that are often contaminated with pesticides, animal waste and fertilizer byproducts.”^[10] It is not uncommon for nitrate, a chemical found in both animal manure and nitrogen-based fertilizer, to pass through the soil and contaminate local groundwater
• It is tragic that these communities often do not have access to alternate means of earning an income or to alternatives to animal products or contaminated tap water. They are hurt by the system and have few reasonable choices. Such limitations are an integral part of the factory farming system. With consumers continuing to demand high amounts of factory-farmed “meat,” communities—not just workers, but entire communities—will continue to be hit hardest by pollution and toxins.
• Certainly plant foods may also be tied to toxic chemical use and abuse as well, but given the huge quantities of plants needed to feed animals raised for food, choosing vegan options goes a long way in reducing our collective “pollution footprints.” Our daily meals offer us the chance to vote with our dollars and stand in solidarity with communities against environmental racism

  • This is a solution in one way, but i don't think everyone on earth going vegan is really going to work that well. That' being sad nice idea. 

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