Posts

Showing posts from May, 2021

When #Fate comes swinging at you Push Back!

When #Fate comes swinging at you Push Back!  (“Nehza” the animation picture released by #enlightenpictures.) There have been hundreds of protests against the Washington Consensus and their lackeys since 1976 by the global justice move- ment and recently the Black Lives Matter movement in America. Street protests and some degree of violence have been the main strategies of the group until recently. But are the resistance movements closer to achiev- ing their aims? The effectiveness of the resistance will be determined by the extent to which they have real- ized actual power: “demonstrated change in the desired direction.” #Except From the Book #Neoliberalism #Globalization #Income Inequality #Poverty and #Resistance available worldwide everywhere online in paperback and ebook (and hardcover by Tuesday May 25th)

When We Hear Of Jamaica Or Caribbean, What Comes To Mind?

I asked a question on Reddit: When we hear of Jamaica or the Caribbean what comes to mind? Someone replied on Reddit: he said: “as a potential investor this region has so much untapped potential.” I replied via #Reddit  writing: Just recently learned that the Caribbean community is pushing towards Bitcoin investments. The Caribbean and Jamaica lack effective investments that can transform them into a competitive force. But in a neoliberal globalized world who wants more competition. I discuss this in my new book Neoliberalism Globalization Income Inequality Poverty and Resistance. Another person replied on Reddit, Inc. saying: they think of the people, the food, the natural beauty, and turquoise waters. Moreover, Yes, Jamaica has natural beauty but who benefits from this beauty and all the treasures the islands have to offer? Is it the natives? No, they were mostly wiped out. Is it the new natives from Africa? No, their life is “life and debt” and hard work! Who enjoys its pleasures? T

NEOLIBERALISM, GLOBALIZATION, INCOME INEQUALITY, POVERTY AND RESISTANCE By Renaldo McKenzie

However, for many unlike Fanon, it is not any ide- ology based in Marxism or capitalism that will suffice either; those systems have failed them (Jamaicans and the Caribbean and their diaspora) or left them in a state of schizophrenia. Instead, Jamaicans such as Bob Marley have resorted to a solution based in religion, a religion of self. According to Marley in the 2018 Netflix film Who Shot the Sheriff, the better solution is when he is of benefit to the people, for that’s the only conscious- ness he can have of self. 174 He, like many Jamaicans, has abandoned Eastern and Western ideology for one that is “Rasta,” a religion born out of self-struggle for a righteous expression of self-power or “Black Power,” and the Black fight for individuality. It was the religion Schleiermacher spoke of, one that is only a spontane- ous expression of free will, and everything in the end must contribute to the self-determination of the au- tonomous individual. For, according to Marley, “we do not def

Excerpt from the Upcoming Book: Neoliberalism Globalization Income Inequality Poverty and Resistance

When we hear of Jamaica or the Caribbean, we think of beautiful islands of paradise with sun, sea and sand, reg- gae music, cannabis, and “irie” people like Usain Bolt —  people who are living out their best dreams, desires, and lives. But this book analyzes this motif, given the historical and current economic and political situation in Jamaica and the Caribbean and the “Global South.” In an attempt to escape the adverse realities of pov- erty, inequality, and injustice, the people of the Global South find themselves in north metropolises with very little agency and minimal change to their lives. In fact, except for the use of cleaning neoliberal waste, the immigrant is usually portrayed as an alien with three heads and big sharp teeth seeking to steal and destroy the profit and disrupt society. As such we will discuss Black, brown, and Pan-African struggles for economic prosperity, justice, and freedom and consider efforts, abilities, or inabilities to chart their own futures since….

Happy Mother’s Day! And Thank You Mom

Image
Renaldo McKenzie | The NeoLiberal  Happy Mother’s Day, Rev. Bernella Mckenzie and all mothers who believe in their children and spent the time to sacrifice and invest in their future.  As we get set to celebrate mothers on mother's, day I have to say thank you to my mommy for seeing the potential in me and investing in my education & literacy. When I was younger, I could not read, write or spell at age level. I remember my mom praying “God what kind of children you give me”. But my mother took me to Jamaica Library Service in Spanish town. Saint Catherine Jamaica from the age of 6 almost everyday (and every summer), where she worked, and signed us up, my twin brother #RICARDOMCKENZIE and I, for every program and invested in our #education during the struggling years of having to raise 6 children in a fledging Jamaican economy.  It all began when my my mother asked me to write a letter to the gleaner and when my former professor at Jamaica Theological Seminary David Pearson aske

Don’t remove incentives to get people to go back to work. Compete With Incentives so that people Want to go back!

Benefits are doing more harm than good and Montana Governor has pulled out of the UE program citing that their State’s businesses can’t find workers. The Governor and his advisors assume that this is because we are paying people to not work. But if truth be told, Employers must pay their workers better wages so that they have real incentive to go back to work.  Moreover, COVID-19 has created a new culture that no one wants to go back to work in a physical place or space. We have heard of several cases where even executives in NY are concocting strategic ways to avoid having to go back to work. In fact, several businesses have called their employees back to work and many have supplied fake sick notices to their employees in an effort to not go back to work.   No one wants to go back to earning minimum wage and no one wants to work the same way since work and play are now remote or tectonic. States and Employers have misplaced blame. People are not going back because they now have