First of all, let's not kid ourselves. A female Caribbean blogger entitled her plaintive post "Is the United States bullying Caricom countries into the ground or is the US blind-sided by the desires of large corporations?" here). She is right. This is not about the local USVI politicians, easily bought, but about Diageo and their ilk who not only convinced the USVI to go along, but paid off our US representatives to approve this travesty, while American taxpayers pay for it. You can feel her sense of desolation as she feels the impending loss of their rum and local culture. And why?
So a handful of 0.1% CEO and megarich devils can capture undeserved and politically manipulated profits that they didn't earn - they stole them and the poor people be damned. Devils. In this post I want to bring this home to those of you feeling safe and warm in far away Kansas.
Guess what? If you think the rape is restricted to Caribbean rum, you are naive. I quote:
(Source: The Daily Caller)"In 2008, the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) entered a 30-year agreement (renewable for up to 60 years) with the British alcohol firm Diageo. In return for relocating its rum production facility to the USVI island of St. Croix, Diageo will receive almost half of the Virgin Islands’ rum tax money, a 90 percent income tax break, and a property tax exemption. The government will also build Diageo a new state-of-the-art distillery and guarantee — subsidize — sugar prices (sugar is a key ingredient in rum) for the next 60 years. The deal could be worth well over $6 billion to Diageo.
And it’s getting worse. According to domestic alcohol industry insiders, the USVI is now trying to convince domestic manufacturers to relocate their operations to the territory and purchase USVI bulk rum to blend into domestic alcohol products. This could destroy thousands of jobs throughout the Midwestern states as distillers move their operations to the Caribbean to take advantage of the tax breaks and subsidies. It could also cost corn producers 22 million bushels worth of demand, since corn is a major ingredient in domestic alcohol production.
Not only would such developments further line the pockets of private companies, but the resulting economic losses to the United States would be devastating."
Note some of the numbers:
1. Diageo's agreement to rape is for 30 years, renewable for 60 years.
2. The deal is worth $6 Billion to Diageo, paid for by the US taxpayers, via the pockets of local USVI politi-twerps.
3. It could cost US farmers 22 billion bushels of corn. Corn producers would lose $1.3 Billion a year, plus many thousands of jobs.
4. The US treasury would lose $3 Billion a year in excise taxes. Over 60 years thats $180 Billion! Got your attention yet?. This doesn't count unemployment benefits, loss of productivity and lost personal and corporate income taxes.
Diageo is the devil. This is a mountain of mooseshit of unbelievable proportions. What can we do? Simple. Get mad, get informed, spread the word, call your US congressman, and sign and promote the petition...
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/sto ... uerto.html
Remember you have but two choices: bend over, or stand the facts up!
