Saturday, April 19, 2014

Carlos Bazante


Carlos Bazante

SOC 122: Social Movements

April 15: Who Goes to Jail?; April 19: Killing Nature's Defenders

One story in Democracy Now!, titled: Who Goes to Jail?, informs us about the injustice gap between rich corporate bankers and the rest of the general public.  Matt Taibbi, an award-winning journalist, a guest in Democracy Now!, explains his latest book which is about the injustice gap.  Matt Taibbi informs us that in order to speak of or get a scope of the injustice of our criminal justices system, we must first look at how white-collar crimes and blue-collar crimes are prosecuted.  For example, HSBC admitted to laundering money for drug cartels in Latin America, yet the CEO was not given a jail sentence.  He claims that there is an injustice at play when our criminal justice system jails illegal drug consumers but fails to jail banks who launder millions of dollars for drug cartels which are associated with hundreds of killings.  More people living in poverty are ending up in jail for petty fraud charges while rich bankers are getting a slap on the hand for large-scale frauds.  Matt Taibbi claims that, today, lawyers seem to hesitate to prosecute large corporate banks because it is more difficult to prosecute large banks than the general public.  He also states that lawyers have more cultural similarities with these rich bankers than they do with the general public, especially people in the lower socioeconomic class.  This story informs the public of an increasing cultural difference and increase of prosecution of people that are not part of the upper socioeconomic class due to an increase of the wealth gap.  It's a story that tries to expose how wealthy people get away with crimes while the poor continue to struggle in society.  People from the upper socioeconomic class benefit more from the criminal justice system than the rest of the public.

Another story In Democracy Now! titled Killing Nature's Defenders informed the public about the murders of people due to their efforts to save their environment and lifestyle.  The story informed us about the rise in environmental and civil activist killed over a decade which currently averages two killings per week.  Brazil and Honduras are the two most dangerous countries for environmental activists.  These activists are usually made up of locals who live in the naturally abundant environment.  In Brazil and Honduras, local environmental activists are fighting, through peaceful protesting, against the deforestation of the amazon.  The story claimed that the killings are usually committed by armed groups.  For example Jose and Maria, two Brazilian environmentalists, were killed in 2011 by mass gunmen.  The rise in killings has raised questions of who are the main perpetrators of these killings.  Oliver Courtney claimed that companies, especially foreign companies, whether it is logging, mining, or cattle companies, are the main perpetrators in these murders.  However, it is difficult to pin point the companies responsible.  One of the most interesting thing Oliver Courtney stated was that the rise in consumption of natural resources is one of the main factors driving the increase of deforestation.  In other words, our consumption pattern is playing a huge role in the killings of innocent people around the world. 

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