Re: [PEN-L:6905] Re: I'm afraid to say this...US blackout

["Anthony D'Costa" <dcosta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

How about those who are neither here nor there?  That is non-US nationals
in the US?  Do they get a break or are they lumped together as "people of
color" "immigrants who should go back where they came from?::)

My two paisas worth: recently on pen-l a number of issues cropped up, one
of which had to do with the role of the left in academia or for that
matter their role in the larger society.  (Of course it goes for the right
as well.)  If I am not
mistaken, Doug in some context (response to Jerry?) brought up the issue
about the millionth iteration about the transformation problem,
indicating that academics are too distant from some immediate kinds of
social issues.  I personally could not agree more. Second, Shawgi's
postings aside from the general unhappiness over the "propaganda" style
messages, touched upon (by Mike Perelman) the more important idea of
"Third World" concerns or lack thereof on pen-l.  There is nothing, zero,
zilch, nada (a la Bush) on the TW (whatever that means) on pen-l, save for
some postings by Sid from across the border.  There is little discussion
over realignment of capitalist centers, issues of technology, its
transfer, material transformation, bourgeofication around the world, and
as one recent essay by Nigel Harriss put it "the end of the west".
Recently New Steel, the industry trade magazine in the US (from
Pittsburgh) nominated an
Indian company (and its leadership) as the "Steelmaker of the Year."
Was this possible even 15 years ago?  How do we explain this firm
(Ispat) buying mills in Canada, the US, Ireland, Indonesia,
Kazakhastan, Trinidad, and Mexico?  How do we explain turning around
loss-making units into profitable ones?  What I am saying where is the
more concrete work that I feel ought to be done by economists in
general, and certainly I expect that of the left if they are against the
more elegant absurdities of the NC theory and methodology.

We are living in an era when the face of capitalism is no longer
the same.  Perhaps this should evoke some response on pen-l.

Anthony

Anthony P. D'Costa
Associate Professor
Comparative International Development
University of Washington
1103 A Street
Tacoma, WA 98402, USA

Ph: (206) 552-4462
FAX: (206) 552-4414