THE NEW EVIL EMPIRE
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
asbarez
Monday, October 3rd, 2011
No, this is not about the rebirthing Ottoman Empire as embodied in
Turkey’s much touted “neo-Ottoman” foreign policy, nor as manifested
in the now-cancelled Hollywood appearance of the Ottoman marching band
(see below the body of this article for a few comments on this turn
of events). This is about Walmart.
Walmart is the biggest corporation in the world. With that kind of
size, comes great responsibility, unless, of course, you’re Walmart
and shirk that responsibility. And, you keep shirking, and shirking,
and shirking…
Then, when people start saying “ENOUGH”, catching on to your vile
business model, and working against the opening of Walmart stores in
new location, you, as the New Evil Empire, find clever ways to get
around people’s ability to stop you.
This is what’s happening now in Burbank. Walmart has purchased
the building that previously housed “Great Indoors”, limiting
people’s ability to constrain the behemoth through zoning and other
discretionary tools available to cities wishing to protect the quality
of life of their residents, small business owners’ livelihoods,
and the jobs of people in the broader area.
Studies have shown that for every job Walmart creates (one of the
selling points the behemoth uses to market itself), one-and-a-half
jobs disappear! Crime increases in the vicinity of Walmart stores. The
small businesses in the area can’t compete with the prices Walmart
sets, and they go under. And, if for whatever reason Walmart is
dissatisfied with a particular store’s performance, it will be shut
down and often kept vacant and unsold, so no one else can move in,
thus creating conditions ripe for blight.
All this is to be endured for the “privilege” of paying low prices.
But have you ever wondered how those low prices are
possible? (Think: “the HIGH cost of low price”). Walmart squeezes
it’s suppliers/manufacturers, causing those outfits in turn to
maintain abusive working conditions, sweatshops and the like, where
people are locked inside and have died when they couldn’t evacuate
(in this, Walmart is not alone, but it is a MAJOR contributor to
the slave-labor-like conditions extant in many developing countries’
factories). They also cause much environmental damage because of their
business model (though to be fair, of late they have taken some tiny
steps in the right direction because they think it looks good for
them and will make them more money).
And what of the employees in Walmart’s stores? They’re not much better
off. Their wages are often at poverty levels. They can’t afford the
health insurance Walmart offers (it comes out to nearly half their
wages!) so they end up using emergency rooms and government provided
care, at everyone else’s expense. A class-action case recently reached
the U.S. Supreme Court in which 1.5 million women said they were
treated unequally (the court ruled they couldn’t constitute a class,
but not on the merits of the discrimination they claimed).
Why should we care? It’s simple. Many Armenians are small business
owners and live in Burbank, Glendale, North Hollywood, Sun Valley,
etc. that would be impacted by the opening of this Walmart store. This
is of course in addition to just plain doing the right thing. There’s
a Facebook page you can access. Please join the effort to find a way
to block Walmart from opening its maw to suck out the life of Burbank
and surroundings.
*** Briefly, regarding the Ottoman marching band, we should celebrate
this victory, but recognize how close we were to disaster. Had they
performed, it would have been a foot in the door to a slowly growing
Turkish propaganda presence in the heart of the largest Armenian
community outside Armenia and Russia.
Many people, friends in and out of City Hall worked to amend
the street closure permit given to the murderous marchers. Even a
State Senator’s office was involved. When they were forced onto the
sidewalk, they cancelled the event, PROVING their real goal was hateful
incitement of the Armenian community. What’s really repulsive is the
“oh-my-gawsh-we-never-imagined-this-would-be-offensive” BS emanating
from the Pacifica Institute as reported in the LATimes (“Protest ends
Hollywood parade plan”, Jason Wells, September 30, p.AA4). They even
had the audacity to claim they explored the possibility of including
“other cultures” in the parade, but couldn’t pull that off in time!
This “cultural” angle is the approach the Turks are using to gain a
foothold. The murderous marchers are in town because of the “Anatolian
Cultures & Food Festival” to be held in Orange County October 6-9.
This is a perfect example of cultural thievery, and must be addressed,
too.