#IMF

[afriblaq]

Why take loans when we have gold that you turn into money, then give us back as loans that we can’t afford to pay back, neocolonialism is just theft 🤫

@chakabars

[milfstalin]

Malthusianism/Ecofascism and the International Monetary Fund/World Bank

[excerpted from my copy of Michael Hudson's Super-Imperialism, 2nd edition, section II chapter 7]

[michael hudson then describes the Partners in Development (1969) program and its ill-suitedness to the actual task at hand & the necessity to reform the agricultural production to support high-value-added production, which the program ignores]

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

On Oct. 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s West African revolutionary leader, was assassinated. Sankara, a Marxist and revolutionary, has been nicknamed “Africa’s Che Guevara.”

It is interesting to note that at a time when youth have focused the world’s attention on the dire issue of climate crisis, and workers and Indigenous people in Ecuador are rising up against the International Monetary Fund’s austerity demands — that Sankara spearheaded major programs in both areas.

He promoted and led a massive people’s campaign called the “One village, one grove” program to combat desertification of the Sahel (the area between the Sahara Desert and Sudanian Savanna). Over 10 million trees were planted. That legacy lives on. 

Under Sankara’s leadership, Burkina Faso nationalized land and mineral wealth and refused aid from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which incurred the wrath of both U.S. and French imperialism. 

[ethanhvnt]

Yes. I'll be the Ethan Hunt to your Benji Dunn. Yes, I will stare at you with adoration and that sort of lovesick look that you can't even comprehend. Yes, I'll protect you and love you as if you're my whole wide world, cause that is what you are. Yes, I will sacrifice myself for you. Yes, I will put my own well-being on the line for the sake that you will be okay. Yes, I will worry about you if you aren't with me. Just yes.

[sdrose93]

Ethan 🥰😍❤‍🔥

[kropotkindersurprise]

August 2024 - Kenya’s political elite is trying to criminalize protests. The government is currently considering a bill that would give the police official authority to ban and crush protests, imposing fines and jail sentences for protesters. Due to the recent uprising, the government was forced to scrap the Finance Bill, an IMF plan that would have significantly raised the cost of living. During the protests in June, more than 50 people were shot dead by the police and many more were abducted, with some people still missing. While the Finance Bill was officially scrapped, Kenya’s top court suspended the ruling that denounced the bill as unconstitutional. This has sparked fears amongst Kenyans that the government will try to implement the law again. Nevertheless, Kenyans have said they will take to the streets should such an event occur. [video]

[probablyasocialecologist]

Kenya can have democracy or neocolonial extraction, but not both – because democracy means addressing the demands of the Kenyan people for jobs, healthcare, education, housing, transportation and basic social protections under a fair and equitable fiscal regime, while colonial extraction means the destruction of economic and monetary sovereignty, austerity for the poor, extravagant lifestyles for the elites, corruption, injustice and socioeconomic exclusion under a fiscal regime that accelerates the engines of economic entrapment. One cannot democratize a system that hasn’t been structurally and economically decolonized yet. Despite Kenya’s democratic institutions, transparent elections, independent judiciary, freedom of speech and vibrant civil society spaces, its elected governments systematically undermine the social and economic demands of Kenya’s population – less because those governments wish to ignore the mandate given to them by the electorate, but because they face financial pressures from abroad that force them to prioritize external debt service and the financial needs of creditors and foreign investors. In 2019, Kenya used 19% of its export revenues to service external debt; today that number has jumped up to nearly 50%. When a country uses half of its export revenues to pay interest on its external debt instead of investing in the basic pillars of development and prosperity, it is not surprising to see the kind of revolt that we have seen in Nairobi against the 2024 finance bill. This makes Kenya a classic case of an economy steered from abroad, by colonial design rather than by accident. The fact that Kenya is in a debt trap after decades of following IMF policy prescriptions means that either the IMF is incompetent or it is engaging in intentional economic entrapment. I believe it’s the latter. It is time to end the entrapment and to decolonize the Kenyan economy.

10 July 2024

[blinkandyoumissit]

14 NOV 2007 | IMF Artist Feed • Fall Out Boy

[ vimeo | youtube ]

[incorrect-missionimpossible]

Benji, to Ethan: The path to inner peace starts with four words Benji: Not my fucking problem

[hadesoftheladies]

this week has been emotionally difficult for me. heck, ever since 2020 happened it's been constant coping tbh. i just woke up and watched soldiers fire at red cross medics at parliament. in my city. i just saw dead bodies litter my twitter. fellow countrymen. i am watching women and men choke on teargas. the country may go dark soon because now the the oligarch we call president is treating the protests as a coup. at least one million protestors out in the streets today. several died and more injured. there is going to be a state of emergency declared soon.

do you know what i was doing in 2019? going to movies and seeing all sorts of new places. in just three years, everyone is penny pinching. in just three years, this city full of startups and a rising business sector is set to be reduced to haitian levels of poverty. biden sends our soldiers to fight in a country he destabilized. did i say fight? i meant die :)

at the snap of a white man's fingers. american congressmen were in kenyan parliament. determining what would happen to this country. willing to tank our economy. one my grandparents fought and bled for. one my parents slaved for. my parents should be retiring GODDAMNIT. but we aren't people. we aren't human, and we can starve if IMF gets that one extra dollar.

we've been growing steadily since independence. we were one of the strongest economies in east africa.

and now at the snap of a white man's fingers, we're all going to be reduced to rubbish.

every country that thinks they're stable of their own merit . . . it's not true as long as the west is alive. it's just not true. everything can and will change at the snap of a white man's fingers. conflict and war aren't a matter of culture or complex history or the moral impurity of a populace.

it's just white men making business decisions. you will never be pure or democratic or educated enough to protect yourself from them.

to be born in the global south feels a lot like being a woman in a patriarchy. you just keep getting fucked over, have zero autonomy, and your safety depends on the whims of a man. when he hurts you, it's your fault. when the war starts, it's what did those uncultured black/brown swine do to provoke it? didn't i tell y'all? didn't i tell y'all that palestine, iran, congo, sudan were fucking warnings? haven't we seen how this plays out? it's always their fault. always our fault.

always your fault.

and at that point, all you can do is die or resist.

[csuitebitches]

Random reading recommendation 1 (find this under my pinned post, under “reading”)

https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Publications/SDN/2024/English/SDNEA2024001.ashx

International Monetary Fund - Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work PDF.

ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape the global economy, especially in the realm of labor markets. Advanced economies will experience the benefits and pitfalls of AI sooner than emerging market and developing economies, largely because their employment structure is focused on cognitive- intensive roles. There are some consistent patterns concerning AI exposure: women and college-educated individuals are more exposed but also better poised to reap AI benefits, and older workers are potentially less able to adapt to the new technology. Labor income inequality may increase if the complementarity between AI and high-income workers is strong, and capital returns will increase wealth inequality. However, if productivity gains are sufficiently large, income levels could surge for most workers. In this evolving landscape, advanced economies and more developed emerging market economies need to focus on upgrading regulatory frameworks and supporting labor reallocation while safeguarding those adversely affected. Emerging market and developing economies should prioritize the development of digital infrastructure and digital skills.

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

How successful would Ethan Hunt…

Propaganda for the mic skills:

He’s a spy, it’s his job to have acting skills. And he’s got that leading man charisma since Tom Cruise.

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Propaganda for the wrestling skills:

Again, he’s a spy. He’s a trained fighter. Just look up any fight scene from the Mission Impossible movies. Also it’s Tom Cruise, the man is always doing stunt work. It’s a big deal that Cruise does all his stunts for the movies. And look what he did at the Paris Olympics, he’d fit perfectly with the stunts in the WWE.

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Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[fandomnerd9602]

Paris locks Ethan and Y/N in the alleyway…

Ethan: we are going to die

Y/N: if it’s at her hands, it’s a worthy death

Ethan: you are such a simp

Y/N: that’s calling the kettle black. What about you and that Grace girl!

Y/N turns to Paris…

Y/N: hey gorgeous what do you say to a little walk around Venice with me?

Paris actually blushes and smiles…

Paris: sounds lovey actually

She unlocks the gate. Her and Y/N walk out together…

Ethan: am I really being a simp?

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Solidarity with the anti-austerity protests in Kenya

Cancel IMF debt, which is crushing the people

No to US-financed invasion of Haiti

Thousands have taken to the streets of Nairobi to protest an austerity bill being pushed by Kenya's neocolonial government at the behest of the US-controlled IMF. The hated Finance Bill raises taxes on basic commodities like food and gas and slashes important social programs like support for pregnant mothers. These cuts are being carried out to pay interest on IMF loans which are used to prop up the rule of a corrupt Kenyan elite. Protestors have been brutally repressed, including likely more than a dozen killed.

The same Kenyan police being used to shoot, maim, and kill the protestors in Nairobi are today being deployed to Haiti as part of a US-led invasion financed by $300 million US taxpayer dollars. The US-financed Kenyan police forces are being used to put down the Haitian people's revolt against their own corrupt elite, who, like Kenya's, have sold out their country to US corporations and banks.

Workers in Haiti, Kenya, and the United States have a common cause. We want to be able to feed our families. We don't want our tax dollars funding fortresses for the ultra-rich. Take inspiration from the brave people of Kenya who taking their future into their own hands.

Workers Voice Socialist Movement (New Orleans)

[ethanhvnt]

Heyyy uh idk if I'll ever post this fanfic but slaps this snippet in ur face MISSION IMPOSSIBLE AND TOP GUN CROSSOVER AALLLEEERRRTTT

Ethan hadn't always been Ethan. Frankly, it was an identity he put on while working for the IMF. For his own safety. Being able to have two (relatively) separate lives without being disrupted. Even though he was more times than not torn between the two. He couldn't exactly clone himself to be in two places at the same time. God, that would've probably made his life easier. He would've had more time to spend with his friends and close friends and even "family" he had as both Pete Mitchell and Ethan Hunt.

He had often found himself being Ethan. It's what just happened. The IMF needed him more, and he wouldn't decline a mission. But it had been quiet for a while from their side. So Ethan— or Pete, he couldn't even tell anymore— took the opportunity to spend more time doing work. Well, not exactly "work." He was a test pilot— Top Gun was under fire, and he had to prove that The Navy had to keep the program afloat cause nothing could actually replace real aviators. So he put himself through extreme levels of speed, passing over Mach 10.

Which is a lot. It was a miracle he survived. He wouldn't know how to tell his friends, Benji, Luther, Ilsa— hell, even Ice or Bradley. If he had died during the process, who knows how they would react to the news?

But God—if there even was one— wouldn't let him die. So, guess he's alive for the time being. No recklessness or cockiness would kill him. It's not like he wanted to die or actively had sought out the chance of death. But he wouldn't mind if he did, in fact, die. He'd finally get that rest he'd been promised for so long.

It all felt like a blur to him. One second, he was testing out flying a plane to reach Mach 10 cause apparently Mach 9 wasn't enough for those snobby higher-ups. The other he found himself in an office, speaking to Admiral Cain, who had chewed him out for his actions during testing. But he had also said that Pete had apparently— been assigned back to Top Gun. Not as a student— course not. But as an instructor. Pete had rebuttaled, stating that he wasn't fit to be an instructor and that the time frame he had gotten was too small and not enough for a mission of this caliber. But nonetheless, he felt hopeless when he heard that it was Ice that had assigned him to the job. He couldn't say anything against that.

The mission was to destroy an unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant, before it was up and running. A mission that could leave some— if not all of the pilots involved dead. But with his experience with impossible things, he'd just have to think like Ethan did, for a moment. Ethan had always accomplished the impossible. So maybe there was a way for them to fly this, and make it out safely without any major casualties. He'd promised himself he wouldn't let anyone lose their life, he'd make them all work as a team, effectively. It would go great, that's what he reassured himself anyway. He wouldn't let anything bad happen, not under his watch.

OK, that was it bye *explodes cutely* (sorry if I got any top gun shit wrong cuz top gun is not my main hyperfixation rn) time to figure out how to continue it heh

[sdrose93]

Mission: Impossible 1996-2025 ❤

Ethan Matthew Hunt ❤