Head of Wal-Mart Group (Andrew Young) Resigns, Cites Own Demagogic Remarks

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Head of Wal-Mart Group Resigns, Citing Own 'Demagogic' Remarks
By Abigail Goldman, Times Staff Writer
August 17, 2006

Andrew Young, the former United Nations ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, said Thursday that he intended to resign as head of a Wal-Mart advocacy group after the publication of what he later called "demagogic" remarks about Jewish-, Asian- and Arab-owned businesses that are displaced when giant Wal-Mart stores open in black neighborhoods.

"I'm sorry. I understand I've created a whole firestorm out there," Young said in an interview from his Atlanta home Thursday night. "It's unfortunate and I should not have said it and I apologize for it. It has not been my experience or my meaning."

In an interview published in Thursday's Los Angeles Sentinel, Young was asked about Wal-Mart shuttering mom-and-pop stores.

"Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood," the Sentinel reported. "But you see those are the people who have been overcharging us -- selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."...

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-young18aug18,0,3308959.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Kagemusha]

1. That was smooth. ...Not.

And I'm sure his words will live on in immortality.

[saigon68]

27. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs;

He has his 20 pieces of silver from Judas Walmart.

The only Statement I have seen more ignorant than this one is.

George Lloyd Murphy (July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992) was an American dancer, actor and politician.

He was born in New Haven, Connecticut of Irish Catholic extraction, and attended Yale University. He worked as a tool maker for the Ford Motor Company, as a miner, a real estate agent, and a night club dancer.

In the 1950s, Murphy entered politics as chairman of the California Republican State Central Committee. In 1964 he was elected to the United States Senate; he defeated Pierre Salinger, who had been appointed several months earlier to serve the remainder of the late Clair Engle's unexpired term. Murphy served from January 1, 1965 to January 3, 1971. In 1968, he served as the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee

Murphy had stated that Mexicans were genetically suited to farm labor; because they were "built lower to the ground," it was supposedly "easier for them to stoop." Oddly, some years earlier, in 1949, Murphy himself had starred next to Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban in the film Border Incident, which cast the exploitation of the braceros in a deservedly negative light.

[BadGimp]

2. Bad move to say that but at least he held himself Accountable

Can we say we see that in Republicans guilty of similar bad speech?

Sometimes perhaps..

[Dhalgren]

4. He held himself "accountable" exactly like the resent Republicans

did. "It has not been my experience or my meaning" - what? If it wasn't your experience nor your meaning, Andy, what the hell was it? If that was not your meaning, why did you say it? If it isn't your experience, then why did you lie? Andrew Young is not some poorly educated, bumpkin who can't handle speaking in public; this is a smart, educated, worldly man, an experienced professional. So we have to be stand up folks here at DU and ask, if he didn't mean it, why'd he say it? And, if it wasn't true (his experience) then why did he lie?

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Held himself accountable or just saved himself from being fired?

:shrug:

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[eleny]

5. His "macaca" moment?

[Toots]

6. Isn't he a black man?

Maybe he is getting a white superiority complex. No blacks did this only Jews and Arabs he says...

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. Yes he is

[gratuitous]

7. Good for you, Mr. Young

If you hurry, you can still retrieve your soul, but it's going to cost you.

[robcon]

8. The conclusion: Andrew Young is a hater.

He hates Jews, Arabs and Koreans. He should be anethema to all of us. He is over.

[CollegeDUer]

9. Andrew Young: another guy who just gave in to the Establishment here

I was proud of him for standing by McKinney (as did the entire civil rights old guard), but was always upset about his connection with Wal Mart.

And this remark was awful. I know many people make bad remarks and say things that are borderline racist (I'm at UGA I know all about that trust me!), but I didn't expect that from Andrew Young, someone who bled for civil rights.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. I wonder what kind of candidates this guy supports?

Young backs McKinney
'Congress needs controversy,' former mayor says

By MAE GENTRY , ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/28/06

The day a poll showed her trailing in a 4th Congressional District runoff race, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney rallied Atlanta ministers, including former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, to her cause.

Young's endorsement Thursday could help in McKinney's uphill battle to keep her office. A close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and an ordained minister, Young also endorsed Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor earlier this year, helping him win the Democratic nomination for governor by appealing to black voters.

Congress needs controversy," Young said in his endorsement, a recording of which was played at the news conference. "The last thing we need in a democracy is people who don't think for themselves. ... I don't always agree with Cynthia McKinney, but I always agree with her right to express her opinions because that creates a dialogue that makes democracy work."

On Thursday, McKinney was surrounded by pastors from DeKalb County churches at a news conference, her first since the July 18 primary election, in which she garnered 47 percent of the vote, compared with former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson's 44 percent. Because neither got a majority, the two will face each other in an Aug. 8 runoff.

more: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/0727metmckinney.html

[CollegeDUer]

13. He supported someone who no doubt reminded him of himself

In his earlier years, back when he did fight for people no matter what big media and money said about him. Having met McKinney and seen her speak a number of times, I have no doubt of her integrity, no matter the personal attacks and Republican votes that put her out of office twice.

[robcon]

14. I think that is, unfortunately, true.

"He supported someone who no doubt reminded him of himself"

Young is an anti-semite, and so is McKinney.

[David__77]

16. He's an anti-Semite; she's an anti-Semite, they're anti-Semites;

There's a lot of accusation coming from certain quarters:

"He's an anti-Semite; she's an anti-Semite, they're anti-Semites;He's an anti-Semite; she's an anti-Semite, they're anti-Semites;He's an anti-Semite; she's an anti-Semite, they're anti-Semites;He's an anti-Semite; she's an anti-Semite, they're anti-Semites;He's an anti-Semite; she's an anti-Semite, they're anti-Semites;He's an anti-Semite; she's an anti-Semite, they're anti-Semites;"

[Peace Patriot]

17. Nope, he included Koreans. He was talking about an economic problem,

not a racial one. Neither Jews, Arabs or Koreans were ever slaves here. That is a unique cultural and economic handicap. No matter what any person or race has suffered of oppression and prejudice, or even genocide (as with Jews and Native Americans), slavery is worse. It is not just genocide--mass killing of Africans in the slave trade, in transit, and in punishments--it is a particularly difficult psychological wound to overcome and to prevent being passed from one generation to the next. Loss of personhood. Ripping out the roots of an aural culture--that has no Bible, for instance, or other documents, to reconnect itself. Ancestry is contained in living memory, not in documents. Families ripped apart--members "owned" elsewhere. Rape and all manner of brutal abuse. And I think worst of all, the difficulty of recovering from the almost fatal cultural and psychological wound of being treated as a subhuman and being "owned," for many generations. The feeling of humiliation must cut very deep. The impacts are still with us. I can only analogize to my own experience as a woman being raised in a humiliating sexist culture ('50s-early '60s, USA)--the wounds are still with me, though our culture has radically changed for the better--and I'm sure that is only the faintest of echoes of what it means to be black in the USA. And when healthier cultures employ their advantages of self-confidence, long term literary traditions and family and community examples of success to run a business in a black neighborhood, the black community may feel doubly exploited--despised by the white culture, a family history of lack of personhood, and resentment of the success of immigrants, or of other minorities. Africans had no choice in coming here. They were stolen--kidnapped--and removed from everything they knew. And you can see it in their faces sometimes, and certainly in their writings, and sometimes in personal communication, that they feel like aliens in this land. They were not personally stolen and enslaved. But the racial and family memories of those things are still alive--and racism most particularly against blacks is still very much with us, so the racial/family wounds are re-inflicted and their impacts re-enforced.

I was a civil rights worker in Alabama in 1965--white girl from Calif--and I shall never forget the shock of segregated drinking fountains--even more shocking to me than segregated restaurants, schools, doctors' offices, hospitals and all the rest. Perhaps because it was so public. "Colored" drinking fountain. "White" drinking fountain. In living memory. 'Blacks are subhuman' was the message, re-enforced every time you walked by those public drinking fountains. I saw blacks lower their eyes when they encountered a white person on the street. I had an argument with a white woman in a laundromat about putting colored peoples' clothes in the white peoples' washing machines. Every day of your life, in every way, being told that you are inferior; that there is something wrong with you because you are black. Andy Young was born into this. These were the conditions of his childhood.

And no matter what sort of discrimination a Jew, an Arab (of those days) or a Korean may have suffered--and no matter what personal difficulties he or she may have had to overcome--there can be nothing comparable to that systematic enforcement of inferiority which requires you to lower your eyes before a "superior" person of the white race on threat of lynching, rape or other physical harm. In the urban environment to which you may have fled, you then see your sons and daughters on the streets, unemployed, with no apparent ambition, getting into trouble, while the Jew, the Arab or the Korean--with mysterious powers of financing and organization--makes money off of your meager wages, with what you perceive as shoddy goods in return. In the poor self-image that you have inherited, you may feel that you DESERVE shoddy goods. So you SEE shoddy goods. It may be real; it may not be. You feel in some way that the owner of the store hates you, or despises you--and inflicts you with shoddy goods on purpose.

This is not racism. It is reality. And I think Andy Young was just trying to express reality--the reality of the street--and should not have apologized for it, but rather should have explained himself--which I'm sure he could do better than I have.

What assholes we have become, to get so touchy about efforts to express reality, and about discussions of race. We have this purist attitude that race doesn't matter. But it's just not true. Race DOES matter. America is a unique and even glorious experiment in many cultures and races living together peaceably. But it is not easy, and given not just lack of leadership, but racist leadership, at the top of our government, stirs primal fears. The bigots in our society are exalted. The divisions between people are exacerbated, and we are pitted against each other.

One of the horrors of the Reagan era of greed, and the Bush era of divisiveness and death, is that we seemed to give up on the many efforts of the '60s and '70s to actively address the things that divide us and to not let them divide us any more--to heal wounds; to compensate for great injustice.

We have to begin with understanding, as I've tried to do here.

Andy Young is a man in deep conflict, I feel. He saw his hero Martin Luther King shot dead before his eyes. What might that do to a young man? It would be difficult to recover from. Blacks were finally making great social and political strides toward equality. As M. L. King believed, this saved US--white society. The black civil rights movement saved OUR soul, as people and as a nation. I know it saved mine. It was a life-changing experience to be even a small part of it. And I have never been prouder of my country when racial barriers began to fall. What an accomplishment as a civilization--with our history! And it was the courage of people like Andy Young who did it--people who faced their potential violent death every day throughout their youths. And then this--to see white society take its bloody revenge on this great man--the man who prevented us from going the way of the Iraqi society we shattered (tribal warfare). The man who had a Dream.

I saw Andy Young do an odd thing recently--that quite shocked me. During the Condi Rice nomination hearings, he was interviewed with two black women's leaders on his arms, in the Senator corridor, on CSpan. And what they said, in effect, was that the Democrats inside who were opposing the Rice nomination should support her because she is black and a woman. Inside, the Bushites were calling the Democrats racist and sexist for opposing Rice--with drools of hypocrisy dripping from their fangs. Outside, Andy Young was, in essence, agreeing with those ghouls.

Andy, Andy, Andy--I thought. What have you done? And now I learn he's been on a Wal-Mart board, trying to sell that disaster to black communities. And then he says something like this--about Jewish, Arab and Korean merchants--coming from deep in his gut, I'm sure--pre-M.L. King learning. Tribal resentment. Old wounds.

A person can be educated, and gain privilege, and be a man of the world--and still feel the stab of "colored" drinking fountain, "white" drinking fountain. Reason and maturity peel away, and you're just a "colored" boy again, infected with the poison of non-personhood, humiliation and self-contempt.

Can we not rise again, as a people, and Dream that Dream again, that we can heal these kinds of wounds, and compensate for great injustice, and save each other's souls, and save our country? It was so magnificent.

[Orangeone]

19. He's Blaming the Wrong

people. It's not the small business owners that cause the problems. He should be blaming the banks that don't lend the money to African Americans.

[robcon]

23. Wow - that's just making excuses for ethnic bias.

It's sad to see a post like yours on DU, Peace Patriot. I thought we have given up excusing ethnic hatred.

[Peace Patriot]

24. Yeah, I'm trying to excuse ethnic hatred. I think it's just great.

And I hope he goes on "hating" Jews, Arabs and Koreans, and maybe gets burned at the stake for it some day by Puritans who make no attempt to understand other people but just hate, hate, hate their impure, confused, contradictory, ambivalent, sinning humanness.

You dismiss me with 21 words. I write 13 paragraphs, trying to explain my experience and trying to understand what's going on with Andy Young. We fought so hard to get rid of those "colored" drinking fountains, and beatings and lynchings for trying to vote, and for trying to be citizens and full persons. Andy Young was a wonderful and courageous young man in that struggle. Do you have any idea how difficult that was, or how hard to envision and believe in change? For people to rise up from slavery, and transcend the ugliness and brutality aimed at them every day, and demand to be treated like human beings, and SUCCEED at changing the world with your humanity and fearlessness? And it broke my heart to see him fawning over Bushite hypocrisy, and hear of him kissing up to Wal-Mart, a full blown Corporatist, and to read of these low remarks about Jewish, Arab and Korean merchants. Don't you understand tragedy? You're just going to dismiss this with 21 words and your holier-than-thou attitude about "ethnic hatred'? This is what comes from Fox News and Bushite thinking. Snappy little, self-righteous remarks--and no ability to understand someone else, and no interest in doing so.

[wickerwoman]

25. You're not wrong about the situation of black people in America

but you're missing the larger point about why these comments are racist. My aunt is Korean and owns a convenience store in a largely African American neighborhood. She works her ass off- 16 hour days, no weekends, heavy lifting. She gets robbed at gunpoint several times a year. And she doesn't overcharge. She puts up with shit about her poor English and takes classes in her "free" time when most Americans would be sitting on their asses watching Ricki Lake. And for some asshole, no matter what color, to make a blanket statement that all Korean business owners rip off their customers is deeply offensive and divisive and unneccessary.

Why do we need to compare the suffering of different groups? If he punches me is it OK for me to go and punch the next person I see? As another poster pointed out, his anger should be directed at the banks who turn down loan applications for African Americans, not at hard-working immigrant groups.

And as a side note, I think you're dead wrong about slavery vs. genocide. The only reason we're not wringing our hands about Native Americans is that there are so few of them left they don't pose a threat to white suburban America.

[rocktivity]

40. His remarks were worse than racist because they completely miss the point.

If you're being "shuttered," it doesn't matter who's doing it--a black, a white, a Jew, an entrepeneur, a franchise, or corporation. Is Young suggesting that moms and pops who aren't black deserve to be shuttered in black neighborhoods, or that they deserved to be shuttered only by a Wal-Mart?

:crazy:
rocknation

[toopers]

30. It wasn't the republican votes that put her out of office . . .

her own party did it to her!

[fjc]

15. Sounds like he tripped over his own inconsistency here

in that he was shilling for a business practice that hurts alot of those mom and pop small businesses, who form part of his constituency. The people he has historically associated with are those who want to see the likes of Wal-Mart disappear.

[Posteritatis]

18. I'll give him credit...

He actually used the proper words in his apology, instead of the usual "I'm sorry you're an idiot" thing.

There's a big, big difference between saying you're sorry for offending others, and saying you're sorry that others are offended. The latter's far more common, and contains far less substance; the former actually blames oneself, not one's victims, which makes me rather more willing to respect the sentiment the person's offering.

[Raine]

20. Shame on him

first of all he shouldn't have taken a job with Walmart "trying" to help them clean up the rotten image they deserve. Then showing himself to have no sensitivity to other groups. :thumbsdown:

[JI7]

28. he also supports Vouchers

[Nevernose]

21. We should make this guy Special Envoy to the Middle East

How the FUCK do you manage to offend Blacks, Jews, Arabs, and small business owners in only one sentence? A moment of pure idiotic brilliance.

Who else do we have that could unite people like Andrew Young? I say we drop him off in the Chebaa Farms with a microphone and see what happens.

[bilgewaterbill]

26. LOL! Immensely accurate! nt

[robcon]

22. His apology is as sincere as Mel Gibson's, IMO

He was caught. He had to apologize.

The apology doesn't change what Young thinks... it doesn't change anything.

[Peace Patriot]

29. Exactly! Although it's unfair to demand an apology and then question

the sincerity of the apology--that's something we truly cannot know--I agree that it may not change Young's thinking, and it may not change anything. That's why I spent such time discussing it. Andy Young seems to have become a different person than he was during the civil rights movement. He's become a Corporatist, allied with the global corporate predators who have done their best to destroy other economies around the world--at the expense of the poor--and are now destroying ours. What would Martin Luther King think of Wal-Mart or NAFTA? He would be appalled. But King is dead. And Young got appointed to the UN by Jimmy Carter--after being mayor of Atlanta....

I just have to pause over that a moment. A black as mayor of Atlanta. Do young people realize how inconceivable that seemed back in 1965? Anyone who really thought that could happen would have been considered a fool and a dreamer. Andy Young could as well have ended up dead. Civil rights workers were being killed. He might have been shot with King. But he survived and saw the Dream come true--far sooner that I ever thought possible.

And now, out of this same head and heart--a man who put his life on the line every day for black freedom--comes a Corporatist, and something of Bushite (at least during the Rice hearings), and then out of his mouth comes STREET PREJUDICE (for that's what this view of small Jewish, Arab and Korean merchants in black neighborhoods is--a STREET view, the view of the POOR AND DISENFRANCHISED, who have nothing, because their parents had nothing, and their grandparents all the way back to slavery had less than nothing; didn't own themselves). Is Andy trying to reconnect with that black anger, or what? He said it in the context of shilling for Wal-Mart. But I think it came from a deeper place than that. It was pre-King. It was the perspective of hopelessness. Andy Young. Has it all turned to ashes, in BushWorld? What's going on with this once committed leader of the PEOPLE?

The bitterness between struggling ethnic and immigrant groups is based on the commonality of poverty, and also to some extent on the quality of our political leadership. Blacks who see other ethnic groups rise into the "American Dream," while they are left out, must really wonder sometimes if there is something wrong with them, as white bigots have told them--a crippling psychological handicap for a child. And when they're not wondering that, they feel resentment. The dehumanizing treatment of bigoted white society takes a tremendous toll. Slavery is still with us, in this sense. And segregation is in living memory.

I do think Andy Young is a quite different case than Mel Gibson. What did Gibson ever do for the poor? He's just an overpaid, overprivileged clown, with a troubling father. And an alcoholic. But Andy Young was a real hero, a man of real courage, who was an intimate part of the greatest social revolution our country has ever experienced. From "colored" drinking fountain/ "white" drinking fountain, to the United Nations, in ten years. We take it for granted now. It was a REVOLUTION then. For Young to revert to this old street bitterness is extraordinary. And it is ridiculous, unfair and inaccurate to call it anti-semiticism. It simply is not. Ethnic slur? Jews, Arabs and Koreans do not share ethnic identity. The only thing they share--relevant to his remark--is that they did better at business in black neighborhoods than blacks did.

OBVIOUSLY, he should be dissing the bankers and the corporate politicians, not the small merchants. But tell that to a street kid who has nothing! He has no access to bankers or corporate politicians. Andy Young was talking from some long hidden part of himself that has no access, no privileges, no hope. That's what I find strange and tragic. Has the aridity and callous, heartless world of corporate profiteering gotten to him? Maybe this remark is a GOOD sign. Raw and cliched, but a sign of life--a reconnection to that old rage he must have felt at one time, that finally found the right direction in the civil rights movement, under Martin Luther King's tutelage.

King is dead. But the people who were closest to him are still with us. Andy Young is one of them. He has long his way. I hope he finds it again.

[robcon]

34. Try not to argue against a strawman, Peace Patriot

"it's unfair to demand an apology and then question the sincerity of the apology"

When did I demand an apology? I never asked for an apology - I don't get some people's 'need' for an apology. What he said was what he said. The only explanation 'required' would be if he denied the quote, IMO. He didn't.

I happen to believe people are far more genuine when they are talking in normal conversation, than when they have a strong advantage in apologizing. I think Young was trying to salvage his reputation, and therefore I believe his apology was self-serving and phony.

[Akim]

31. Would his remarks have been acceptable if Young had said:

"whites, blacks, Jews, Koreans and Arabs."

Because, regardless of whom is doing the selling, food is more expensive and of lower quality in predominantly minority neighborhoods.

[Judi Lynn]

32. You're right. It has been a chronic problem for decades.

I would think it would drive poor people who don't find it easy to drive far away to the cleaner, fresher, healthier, cheaper stores to distraction.

They are trapped by their poverty, and bound by necessity to take to whatever low grade garbage anyone wants to sell them at a horrendous mark-up over its actual value.

[Akim]

33. Yes, and especially for the elderly, who have no options n/t

[Sweetpea]

37. yes

Yes it is all in the wording.

[Kickoutthejams23]

35. Since when is the local Quickie Mart Walmart's competition?

There are plenty of Super Walmart's where I live and I haven't seen a single convenience store close as a result. Only an insane person would fight the parking and crowds at a big box store to pick up a gallon of milk and some smokes. Walmart's competition where I live is other big box retailers such as K-mart and Target as well as large grocery chains. Quickie marts thrive in my area. (As do specialized "ethnic groceries") I also personally know many owners of such stores and like any group some are quite friendly and some are a$$holes. So not just are Young's comments raciest but his whole argument is a bit of a straw-man itself. Plus c'mon when was the last time Andrew Young had stale bread, bad meat or a wilted vegetable. The man has been on the Merlot and Foie-Gras circuit for 30 years. I somewhat doubt he has even set foot into a Korean grocer with their vegetable stands and fresh buffets. Very rich men (of any color) who live in gated communities probably should refrain from attacking hard working Americans (and yes Andy most Quickie-Mart owners are Americans no matter what their color or ethnicity.)

Mr. Young needs to realize that Americans come in all sorts of different colors. Perhaps he could take on of those racial sensitivity training courses. Maybe he will learn about the civil rights movement and how it made this nation great. :sarcasm:

[rocktivity]

36. But if this is how he feels, why did he take the job?

Wal-Mart scored a coup in February when it hired Young...to head Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group funded by the retailer to counter rising criticism by unions and community activists.

Young, who was in Los Angeles last week to meet with city officials and reporters on Wal-Mart's behalf, has stood fast in his position that the company helps working people, including African Americans.

:crazy:
rocknation

[Peace Patriot]

38. That's interesting. Inglewood (poor black community in Los Angeles)

mounted a successful campaign to keep Wal-Mart out. The campaign combined local civic groups, unions, church groups, human rights groups and city council people. This story was largely kept out of the corporate news monopoly press because it was so revolutionary and so amazing. Inglewood stood up to Wal-Mart! It got on the ballot. People were enticed with slick brochures about jobs and development. But people didn't buy it. Wal-Mart DEGRADES urban environments. extorts tax breaks and gobbles up land, and provides cheap, no-future jobs in return, and cheap products shipped in from sweatshop countries that undermine local retailers, local manufacturing and labor rights.

That is why Andy Young was shilling for Wal-Mart in Los Angeles--the Inglewood revolt!

[rocktivity]

39. DING DING DING! PeacePatriot, you're our grand prize winner!

Wal-Mart DEGRADES urban environments, extorts tax breaks, gobbles up land, and provides cheap, no-future jobs...and...products shipped in from sweatshop countries that undermine local retailers, local manufacturing and labor rights.

That's the bottom line, and I guess Andy finally had to wake up and smell the coffee. But instead of insulting his way out of the job, imagine if he'd resigned for the reasons you gave: "It is clear to me now that Wal-Mart actually degrades urban environments by extorting tax breaks, providing cheap jobs and products..."

"It is not true that there is dignity in all work. Some jobs are definitely better than others...People who have good jobs are happy, rich, and well-fed. People who have bad jobs are are unhappy, poor and use meat extenders. Those who seek dignity in...work that compels them to help (their) hamburgers are certain to be disappointed."
--Fran Lebowitz, Metropolitan Life, 1974

:headbang:
rocknation

[cosmicdot]

41. how about resigning from Barrick Gold's Int'l Advisory Board, too?

while making amends ... why not?


Barrick Gold ... a favorite of Poppy Bu$h ...

"Poppy Strikes Gold"
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=207


International Advisory Board

The International Advisory Board was established to provide advice to Barrick’s Board of Directors and management as the Company expands internationally.

Chairman
The Right Honourable
Brian Mulroney
Former Prime Minister of Canada

Members

Gustavo Cisneros
Venezuela
Head of the Cisneros Group

Secretary William S. Cohen
United States
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Cohen Group

The Honourable Paul G. Desmarais, Sr.
Canada
Director and Chairman of
Power Corporation of Canada

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. <------- Bill Clinton's DC insider buddy
United States
Senior Managing Director
Lazard Freres & Co., LLC and
of Counsel to Akin, Gump, Strauss,
Hauer & Feld, LLP

Peter Munk
Canada
Chairman
Barrick Gold Corporation and
Chairman

Trizec Properties, Inc.
Karl Otto Pöhl
Germany
Senior Partner
Sal. Oppenheim Jr. & Cie

Lord Charles Powell of Bayswater KCMG
United Kingdom
Chairman
Sagitta Asset Management Limited

Nathaniel Rothschild
United Kingdom
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
JNR Limited

The Honorable Andrew Young <---------------
United States
Chairman
GoodWorks International

http://www.barrick.com/Theme/Barrick/files/docs_annual/2005_AR_CorporateGovernance.pdf


What exactly does GoodWorks International, Young's group, do?
Liaison for corporatism and privatization???? Corporatizing and privatizing resources of African and Caribbean countries? Will the countries and their peoples involved benefit the most or will transnationals?


Clients
````````

GWI clients, past and present, include a top-five U.S. petroleum company, a top-three worldwide energy producer, a top-three mining company, a top-three sports merchandise producer, a top-five financial asset management firm, a South African transportation firm and a major U.S. telecommunications operator.

Top-three mining company ... Barrick?

Projects
`````````

GWI participates in projects within a variety of sectors. To ensure maximum success in any given area, we assemble consortiums and forms partnerships with specialty firms to provide the specific expertise that may be required.

A sampling of projects with GWI participation:

Commercial Port Development - Angola

Description: U.S. Trade and Development funded feasibility study to determine the commercial viability of a modern port in Cabinda Province, Angola, as part of a regional economic development plan
GWI role: Project Coordinator and Government Relations
Partners: Provincial Government of Cabinda, LockWood Greene Engineering & Construction, Mckenna Long & Aldridge, Habitar Ltda, and Chevron

Port Automation - Africa

Description: Computerization of a national port system
GWI role: Transactional Negotiations and Project Oversight
Partner: Port Automation International BV, Netherlands

Privatization of State-Run Electricity & Telecommunications Facilities - Africa

Description: Bid to divest of state-owned electric power and telecommunications facilities to encourage efficiency and attract foreign investment
GWI role: Participant
Partners: PriceWaterHouse Coopers, Canada

Airport Revitalization and Rehabilitation - The Caribbean

Description: Bid to rehabilitate existing commercial airport, including the runway and complementary facilities to international standards to accommodate commercial aircraft and boost tourism
GWI role: Government Relations and Transactional Negotiations
Partners: PriceWaterHouse Coopers, Canada

Hotel Acquisition - The Caribbean

Description: Bid to privately acquire state-owned hotels
GWI role: Transactional Negotiations
Partners: Hotel Partners and Ernst & Young

Private Equity Fund for Telecommunications Development - Africa

Description: Raising capital for a $350 million equity fund for the development of Africa's telecommunications sector
GWI role: Partner responsible for raising private equity
Partner: Alliance Capital Fund, New York

Railroad Rehabilitation - Nigeria

Description: Rehabilitation, modernization, and management of rail system, to entail high level of local content
GWI role: Government Relations
Partner: CANAC, PriceWater House Coopers, Canada


http://www.goodworksintl.com/gwiconsulting/


Ambassador Andrew Young serves on the Board of Directors of numerous businesses and organizations, including Archer Daniels Midland, Atlanta Market Center, Cox Communications, Delta Airlines, Film Fabricators, and Thomas Nelson Publishing. He is an Advisory Board member of Argus Newspapers, Barrick Gold ...


Thomas Nelson Publishing published one of his books.

History
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In 1996, three men with a capacity for vision joined forces to fill a particular set of needs faced by enterprising firms and emerging markets in Africa and the Caribbean. Businesses and governments recognized the untapped opportunities before them. But they lacked expert advisory services necessary for accelerating successful relationships and initiatives. Andrew Young, Carl Masters and Hamilton Jordan formed GoodWorks International, LLC to fill this void.

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In 1995, President Clinton appointed Mr. Young Chairman of the $100 million Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund (SAEDF), which was established to help create small and medium size businesses throughout Southern Africa.


I bet those 3 men did have 'a capacity for vi$ion'.