women?feminism?

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Nov 18 06:36:07 PST 1999


Hi Maureen:
>Many of these occult-fears generated in the 3rd-world contain
>not-too-hidden critique of global-cap. One simple for-instance is how
>through the '90s parts of Latin America have witnessed mass panics about
>unscrupulous gringos ("saca-ojos") stealing the organs of infants and
>youths which they carry off to America for mystical, wealth-creating ends.
>(=affluent America siphoning off the essense of impoverished "others" for
>their own gain, etc.). What do you think of a case like that? Are the
>Guatemalans and Peruvians idiots for literally believing that their
>countryside is teeming with gringos who fill up suitcases with eyes and
>organs extracted from their community's children? or are they astute to
>intuit some larger truths? some of each?

A while ago, Doug sent this to lbo:
>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Subject: broke? sell a kidney, or an eyeball even!
>
>Financial Times - November 1, 1999
>
>Japanese debtor told 'to sell a kidney'
>By Paul Abrahams in Tokyo
>
>A former employee of Nichiei, a Japanese consumer finance company,
>was arrested over the weekend for allegedly telling a loan guarantor
>to raise money by selling body parts.
>
>Japanese police said the employee had told the 62-year-old man he
>could earn ¥3m ($29,000) for his kidney and ¥1m for his eyeball to
>help finance a loan he had guaranteed to a now-bankrupt company.
>
>The police reported that Eisuke Arai, a 25-year-old staff member,
>added: "You have two, don't you? Many of our borrowers have only one
>kidney ....I want you to sell your heart as well, but if you do that
>you'll die. So I'll bear with you if you sell everything up to that."
>
>Kazuo Matsuda, president of Nichiei, said yesterday: "I can't even
>think that an employee of our company would do something like that."
>
>The case, which police say is only the first step in a wide-sweeping
>investigation into the conduct of consumer finance companies, is a
>huge blow for the industry, a sector anxious to escape its "loan
>shark" reputation.
>
>Consumer finance in Japan enjoys huge margins, benefiting from a cost
>of funding of about 2.3 per cent and an ability to charge interest
>rates of up to 40 per cent for loans without collateral. The average
>lending rate of Nichiei and two similar groups is 20.87 per cent,
>according to the Financial Supervisory Agency....

Given this, it makes sense for Latin Americans and other citizens of poor nations to fear the body-parts-stealing gringos, literally or metaphorically! The debt deflation (= capitalist crisis displaced from core to periphery) has devoured the future (= the young), you see.

However, the "Satanic day care scare" is another matter entirely, in terms of the class content of the fear. It's mainly about blaming low-wage workers -- often women workers -- and "neglectful mothers," not the vampirish avatars of mythical powers of imperialism. One can't argue that "Satanic day care scares" contain displaced signifieds of anti-imperialist criticism. They divide the working class, and anti-feminist to boot, in their images and effects. The same reason why I think "macho leftist" fantasies about the progressive potential of militia and other far-right guys are so pig-headed.

Yoshie



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