The NeoLiberal

Early on Thursday morning, part of a 12-story residential building in the South Florida community of Surfside was reduced to rubble. As of Friday afternoon, at least four people had been found dead as a result of the collapse, and 159 were still missing, according to ABC7 .   Recently the mayor in response to the collapse of part of a Miami condo building where 99 people are missing and 4 are reported dead, said that “this doesn’t happen in America”.  That’s the problem you know, we don’t expect certain events to occur in America, and when they do happen, we react and play catch up. It is that belief that has caused several catastrophes, 9/11, #Katrina that destroyed NO, #The attack on the US capital on Jan 6, 2020 and the recent collapse of the building in Miami. In fact a recent study in 2020 showed that since 1990 the land was receding as water levels were rising, yet Miami still stuck to their assumptions that drove their rule of thumb to inspect buildings every 40 years....

And on June 14th my mom went to her appointment only to be in labor. Ricardo was born… then…”Wait… hold up… Mrs. McKenzie, there’s another one, oh my you got twins! I came out within a minute, all #premature, #malnourished and looking like a small “half-pound chicken” you could hold in your hands. The doctors said they will die, they’re too premature in #1979. I was rushed to the incubator and there I remain for the next 4-5 months, being fed via tube connected to my nostrils or veins as my mouth and some organs were not developed. But here I am after 42 years alive and tryna be well. Read my brief autobiography in my new book #Neoliberalism #Globalization #Income Inequality #Poverty and #Resistance. 

#Sunday: 42 years ago today; It was #June 13th, 1979; the end of the 2nd trimester & the beginning of another. My #mom & #dad set an appointment to see the #Obstetrician for a #pregnancy check-up. She thinks she’s pregnant with 1 child & is making preparations @37 years old to give birth in #September or #October… but little do they know about what’s about to happen…  On June 14th tomorrow… follow tomorrow for part 2 of the story

My #father was one of my greatest and most important #rolemodels and #investors. He believed in me and sacrificed for my growth and upbringing so that today I can honor his memory by writing an academic textbook on #Neoliberalism #globalization #Incomeinequality #Poverty And #Resistance. He wanted me to become an #economist and or a #theologian and or an #architect as he was sort of a building engineer and ran his own construction  company as an Independent Contractor for major government agencies and private firms. He helped with building the Jamaica National Stadium and several major projects. He was great at his job. He was jack of all trades and even built a car in the 80’s, built our beautiful home in the hills, built and started several churches, and ran an animal and vegetable farm and built some unique furnishing from scratch. However he made many mistakes as a dad and had some detractors that may question his character, but aren’t we all smeared. He was firm, hard, rough a...

Written by Rev. Renaldo McKenzie | Published January 7th in TheNeoliberal Blog updated June 7, 2021. I’d like to update the course name “Caribbean Thought” and make some additions and changes to the course outline. The course was originally developed by Rev. Dr. Garnett Roper, former President of the Jamaica Theological Seminary. I first taught the class Spring Semester January 2021. I provided this addendum then and updated it for Summer semester beginning June 7th, 2021 The course should be called “Critical Thinking and Expressions in the Caribbean and Caribbean Diaspora”. I will add the following required readings: Renaldo C. McKenzie’s Neoliberalism Globalization Income Inequality Poverty and Resistance,” Kenneth B Clark “Dark Ghetto; Dillemmas of Social Power,” Thomas Clark “Globalization and Neoliberalism The Caribbean Context,” and Homi Barber’s “Location of culture.”  Day one of the course will look like this: Day 1:  Introductions Review of Course outline Discuss Expe...

Lawrence Alexander (Jr.) A strategist at Wake Forest in New Jersey quotes Desmond Tutu as saying “we need to stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” But I thought about it and hypothesized that that is probably why they haven’t stopped pulling people out. Because if you have to travel #upstream to inquire about why they’re falling then there goes the issue. Going up to find out why is a task. Since you’re using #nature as an analogy I’ll continue in that vein. “Nature” has used #countervailing tactics to prevent others from coming #upstream. Going upstream  means one will have to be creative, inventive, dynamic and #powerful to go against the stream. But for all we know we have tried to go upstream softly. We have tried to change force with pacificity & incoherence. But we cannot stop pulling people out, for by the time we stop and go upstream, how many would have fallen in that needs #help! So don’t stop pulling people...

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)

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 pleasure...

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...

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…....