State of Our World: Open_Notes 22

a prisonized landscape, an alternative reality in the global economy - in Australia 1-2% of population aboriginal, yet 30% of the prison population [many young women in prison due to heroin] - the "racial dimension" -- the descendants of the convicts [Australian penal colony] are now proud of their history [convict pride], yet there is no attempt to understand the aboriginal plight today, the poverty and crime - deconstruction of the criminalization of poverty [most of the crimes petty theft, etc.] but not applying that to the situation today [historical amnesia] -- in America's prisons 50% are black, 17% Latino, Native Americans have the highest per capita rate; what is it like living in a society with almost 2M people in prison ?? - how did it happen ?? - how did this totalitarian regime take place ?? - the 1980s Thatcher/Reagan "War on Drugs" and the lifting of corporate regulations [the new global market], the deindustrialization of the US economy has resulted in poverty for many in the US - the homeless, the prison population, those who have given up looking for work are not counted in the unemployment numbers; as the welfare state was being dismantled in the US-UK [social disestablishment] a corresponding increase in the number of women entering prison rose, who were forced into illegal economies - the IMF-World Bank is demanding massive structural adjustments in the Third World and the impact will be enormous !!

State of Our World: Open_Notes 22