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5A OPINIONS/tE^ Cdatlotte $o«t Thursday, August 31,2006 Why it’s easy for big oil to clock record profits I am. old enough to have noticed something- Since the 1973 oil crisis there is this interesting pattern. The price of gas jumps (with the price of a barrel of od). There is out rage expressed and popular exasperation with this cir cumstance. The situation gets worse and it is then revealed that the od companies are making a mint in prof its. Demands are raised in Congress for investigations into price gauging. IF these investigations take place at ad, they generady find the od com panies are as pure as the driven snow. This is tiien fodowed by a demand on and in Congress for a so-caded windfad profits tax on the od companies in order to lessen the price of gas for tiie average person. Over a period of days, this demand col lapses and everyone accommodates them selves to paying more at the pump. It is not exaggeration to say that this pat tern has repeated itself time and again in major and minor od crises. Yet each time, we, the pubdc, get use to paying more for gas. We complain. We do what we can to resist. We pay It is obscene that the od companies can make billions of dodars in profits, blame the od producing coimtries, and shift the entire burden onto the average person. This is made even wome by our dependency on cars and od. The decisions that were made at the end of World War 11 to sub- mbanize the USA—particvdarly for white people—led to the demand for cars, hi^ways, and cheap od. Most of us did not cart^ how the od was kept cheap (usuady by the USA and Britain supporting puppet rulers in od producing coimtries repressing their citizens), or about the impact of suburbanization on the environment. It was happening, and it often meant affordable homes in nice environs. Od is no longer cheap. Many of the puppet rulers have been ousted and odproducir^ countries want to make sure that their nations and peoples gain the benefits of possess ing this critical natural r^ource. More importantly the major od companies have us in a head lock. So many com panies; so little diflerence in price. Added to this, we are fast approaching the point where the amount of od in the ground amoionts to less than has been extracted. Tb put it more simply we are going to eventually run out of od. There is no eneigy policy in the USA. No, actually I am wrong. There is an energy policy support the od compa nies and give them all the benefits imaginable. The Bush administration made this fairly dear when Vice President Cheney had dosed door meetings with leaders of the ener gy industries and wotdd reveal nothing to the general pub lic of its content. So, we pay hi^er prices for gas; little attention is paid to the development of alternative enei^ sources; the od com panies are permitted to rip us ofi" and reap major profits; and the environment worsens. What is wrong with tins picture? We absolutely need a windfall profits tax. We need to take some of those billions to accomplish several things at the same time. There is a need for immediate relief for the public on the price of gas. This, however, is very short term. A true national and ^obal policy of energy produc tion and usage must be put in place. This wdl be very dif ficult for most people in the USA to accept because it wdl mean that we must live differently We must have greater access to public transportation rather than tearing up farmland to produce more houses and more highways. Ifele-commuting needs to be expanded where it is possible so that there are fewer commuters cm the road, or so that commuters are on staggered hours. And we must concen trate on redeveloping the cities, not in the form of gecntiifi- cation, but a reconstruction efibrt to make them hospitable for working people. The Bush administration shows absolutely no interest in such an approach- Their adage seems to draw fi-om the French King Louis XV whose words “...after me the flood. -. ” preceded by no more than two decades the French Revolution- In Bush’s case, it seems to be something like after me, global coUapse. What wdl the next two decades look hke in our case? BILL FLETCHER is a Washinglon, D.C.-based writer and activist involved with labor and international issues. Afortner pres ident of TransAfrica Forum, he is now a Visiting Professor in Political Science at Brooklyn College-CUNY. He cati be reached at papaq54@hotniail.com. We absolutely need a windfall profits tax. We need to take some of those billions to accomplish several things at the same time. Trying to kill a fiy with sledgehammer Picture this: A fly keeps buzzing around you as you try to take a nap- You swir^ at it a couple of times but it keeps returning. You get up and grab the most convenient thir^ at hand, which happens to be a sledgehammer The fly is sitting there on your table, and you’re so angry at the fly that you swing without considerir^ the collateral damage you will cause. Your table is crushed and the fly got away only to return with its buzzing in your ear. Sound ridiculous? Sure it is, but so is dropping 500-pound bombs to kill one or two men. The U.S. spent millions of dollars on the “smart” bombs dropped in the mountains where Bin Laden was supposed to be hiding. Two 500-pound bombs were used to get al-Zarqawi — and a few others. We have spent, given away, or ‘lost” more than $500 billion on what was origi nally deemed an effort to get rid of Saddam Hussein, and now that he is out of power we are still spending billions. Talk about overkill Bin Laden is still making audio tapes, and terror is at its hipest level in Iraq. Thanks, Gecoge. We see in the current conflict between Israel ap.d Lebanon that the number-one U.S. ally is a very good student. Two Israeli soldiers were taken away and the response has resulted thus far in 750 innocent people killed, a third of whom were children, billions of dollars in Lebanese infi-astructure destroyed, and that pesky fly Hezbollah, is still buzzing. How do you decide to drop a bomb on a house, whether you know there are 30 children inside or not? Wovildn’t it have been reasonable to use a ground assault? Tb say the retaliation by Israel against Lebanon, with which tiie Israeli ambassador said, “We have no quarrel,” to say it was unrea sonable is a gross understat^nent. Tb destroy a country in response to the loss of two soldiers belies the Jewish tenet of an eye for an eye. Seems in this case it’s about 150 eyes for one eye. What other countries but the U.S. and Israel could use the levd of force we have seen during the past five years or so and not be held accoimtable? Iraq was destroyed despite the fact that Bin Laden was not there nor did he have any connection to Iraq and Hussein. Lebanon is being destroyed because two men were kid napped. Who will pay the bill for rebuilding Iraq? Who wQl pay for the rebuilding of Lebanon, which is supposed to be a fiiend of the U.S. VTth fiiends like us Lebanon is probably looking for more At the heart of all of this is the relationship between this coun try and Israel- Bush and Condi were busy defeiding Israel, stalling for time so more sledgehammers coiild be used against Lebanon. Yes, they coiild have told Israd to cease and desist, the same way they did when Hussdn was raining scud missiles down on them during the first Iraq war under Daddy Bush. But, for some reason, Condi and George, Jr. allowed the destruction of Lebanon by Israel. What’s up with that? The Israelis dropped leaflets to let the people know their villages would be bombarded, to give them a day or so to leave their homes. Suppose someone flew over Detroit and dropped leaflets saying get out in 24 hours because we are going to destroy your city Would you leave, Detroiters? Of course, some would, as did some of those in Lebanon, but some could not and would not leave You know, like some of the folks in New Orleans when the hurricane wamiTig was issued. I don’t know, but it seems to me that little-old Israel has a whole lot of juice in this world. Maybe more Black folks should move to Dimona, Israel, the dty to which some of our brothers and sisters moved in 1968, and capitalize on some of that Israeli power. We sure could use it, couldn’t we? Is what we are seeing aU a part of a greater plot, a larger scheme to transpose the so-called “middle east” into that “danocracy” for which Dubya yearns? Or, is this the precursor for even more hos tilities, an eschatological harbinger of Biblical proportion? Whatever it’s all about, it doesn’t look good for the home team. Condi gets embarrassed and is now being criticized as incompe tent by Newt Gingrich and the boys, as George, during a meetup with the big boys, chews with his mouth open and uses the “s- word” on camera and into an open microphone. Rumsfeld doesn’t know anything, and Ch^ey is somewhere in the dark recesses of his dungeon of vice cooking up the next energy policy What a cast of characters, huh? AU the while, men, women, and children, the infirmed, and the incapacitated were trying desperately to get out of vUlages in Lebanon the best way they could before gettiig their heads blown off by F-16 bombing raids using 500-po\md bombs to kUl one or two guys. What a waste. All of this reveals why Md Gibscm offered an immediate mea culpa, over and over again, for the words he spoke against the Jews. When he came to his senses, even with aU of his mfllions of dollars, Mel realized that if he did not prostrate himself and beg for forgiveness, Israel just might send him a smart bomb or two. Way to go, Mel. Kidditg aside, the people that wer« lost in this latest geopolitical fiasco, on both sides, are an example of our willingness to accept the horrors of war more and more. Any country has the right to defeid itself but for God’s sake, put away the sledgehammers; they tend to cause too much coUateral damage, guys. JAMES CUNGMAN, a professor at the University of Cincinnati ’s African American Studies department, is former editor of the Cincinnati Herald newspaper and founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce. Young Disrespectful merchants don’t deserve our respect, dollars By Louis Kendrick NEW P/TTSBURGH COURIER Andrew Youig was partially correct A few months ago I wrote a column about the almost non-existence of black entrepreneurs. I explained that throi^out the black communities aU of the merchants were i different than us. The Russians own I (he gas stations, Pakistanis, the fish stores, Koreans, the nail stores, Arabs, the rent-a-rim stores, Chinese, the beauty supplies. East Indians, the clothing stores, and their market is 99 percent black. I am compeUed to write this coltmm again because Andrew Young made a similar state ment, which resulted in his termination fix)m Wal- Mart. In my estimation he was partially correct, but incorrect in his presentation. Jewish people owned all of the stores in my youth and usually there were positive int^actions. We all lived in the neighborhood, went to school together and generally had a respectful relationship. I dis agree with Andy’s negative remarks about the Jewish merchants with whom I came in contact. However, I am in almost total agreement with his accvirate description of how we allow merchants of an array of different nationalities to disrespect us as a people and we continue to support them with our money Some of these merchants call talk shows and are candid about how tliey feel about us. I have heard tiiem say, “Those people have been here for centuries and have done nothing. We just arrived four years ago, but look what we have done.” Black beauty stores have been put out of business because we buy the weaves and other items fiom other nationalities and have inherited to a laige degree that mindset of yesteryear-”white folks ice is colder than Black folks ice.” The Russians at an East Liberty gas station have been so insiflting that some of the people responded by shooting aU of the windows out. That methcxi is totally wrong, because they could have shot innocent people. If you cease patronizing the store you hiirt them in the pocket book and that hurts worse. One day I stopped in a store to purchase a newspa per coily to realize when getting back to my car that it was yesterday’s paper. I wait back to exchange it and all of the papers were fiom the previous day When I said to the clerk-who not too long ago was liv ing outside ofAmerica-thatthepaper was yesterday’s he answered in a very negative tone, ‘What differ ence does it make?” I would be unprofessional to write my response, but I did not shoot out the win- dows-but the windows rattled. I never went into that store again It’s obvious to me that these newly arrived people came to America with a negative perception of Blacks and as we make them rich their perception is rein forced. Black citizens, you have the option either to open your own businesses or spend your money in a way that demands respect. LOUIS KENDRICK is a columnist for the New Pittsburgh Courier Connect with $oSt Send letters to The Charlotte Post, P.O. Box 30144 Charlotte, NC 28230 or e-mail editorial@thecharlottepost.com. We edit for grammar, clarity and space. Include your name and daytime phone number. Letters and photos will not be returned by mail unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Aug. 31, 2006, edition 1
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