Birmingham schools’ Third World computers & the failure of the ‘New South’

One bit of evidence which points to the continued decline of Birmingham, Alabama in particular and the South in general under the ‘New South’ model of US-style democracy and equality, is the deal that was signed a few years ago to deliver to the city’s failing schools thousands of cheap laptops that were designed by humanitarian groups to be distributed in the Third World. This is a story that many might have missed. It points to a deeper problem in the South, which will be addressed below. Marie Leech writes for AL.com: Birmingham city schools will be the first in the nation to receive laptop computers designed for children in third-world countries under an agreement completed over the weekend, Mayor Larry Langford announced Monday. Langford signed a purchase agreement for 15,000 laptops from One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit foundation whose goal is to provide every child in the world with access to technology. “We live in a digital age, so it is important that all our children have equal access to technology and are able to integrate it into all aspects of their lives,” Langford said. “We are proud that Birmingham is on its way to eliminating the so-called `digital divide’ and to ensuring that our children have state-of-the-art tools for education.” Under the agreement, the city will buy 15,000 laptops for $200 each, Langford said. The $3 million deal will allow every child in grades one through eight in Birmingham city schools to receive a laptop, he said. THIRD WORLD TRANSFORMATION The city of Birmingham was founded in part on lands that once formed part of a Southern plantation in what was in the Old South a wealthy and productive region. The people who first settled the area and created the city were mostly of English ancestry (as is common among Southerners in the Lower South) and named their town after the British industrial giant. It grew into a major transportation and industrial centre under the regime of limited autonomy in the post Reconstruction era. However, the so-called ‘Civil Rights’ movement of the 1950s and 60s changed all of this. The imposition of US-style democracy, equality and forced integration (the denial of property rights and free association) led to a mass exodus of White Southerners from the city. That process continues to this day. For example, in the year 2000 the city was 62% Black and 35% White. A decade later it was 73% Black and 22% White. The results have been similar to those in Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta and other cities. The demographic changed that was caused by the US Federal Government’s intervention has has disastrous consequences. Birmingham (a small city compared to metropolises such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles) now has the tenth highest crime rate in the US and was ranked as the third most dangerous city in the US for 2011. Only Atlanta (another Southern city ruined by US democracy, equality and demographic change) and St Louis ranked higher. The county in which the city is located, Jefferson County, has filed for bankruptcy. The New York Times described the situation with the headline, ‘In Alabama, a County That Fell Off the Financial Cliff.’ Essentially, Birmingham is now a Third World city in terms of demographics, crime, corruption and economic collapse. It is virtually certain that as conditions continue to worsen in the city that the remaining White people will attempt to flee. New suburbs outside of town will continue to be built as many hundreds of millions of dollars will be wasted on replicating the infrastructure of Birmingham that US democracy and equality have allowed to be lost. It’s an enormous waste of resources, really, much like the Third World computers that will distributed to Birmingham schools. Does anyone seriously think that or similar measures will, as former Mayor Larry Langford (who is now in prison after being found guilty of corruption) said, ‘eliminate the digital divide’ and provide ‘state of the art tools for education’? Does anyone believe that the quality of education or life in general in Birmingham will ever equal that which can be found in the suburbs built for the White refugees who were forced out of town? Even setting aside the particulars of mayor/criminal Langford’s scheme, what about the broader question of the failure of Southern cities and the abysmal state of education in quality of life in Southern cities such as Birmingham? SOUTHERN NATIONALIST SOLUTION This process of continued decline could be halted and reversed. However, that would require a willingness to scrap the policies and political/social values which created the current Third World conditions found in Birmingham. Southern cities such as Atlanta, Birmingham and Memphis were once safe and prosperous communities; they were once good homes for people. They could be again. To put it bluntly, the policies and political/social values under which these cities were created and prospered worked; the current US policies and political/social values do not work. The Southern nationalist solution is simple, really, though, as stated it would require a willingness to admit the failure of the ‘New South’ model under which US values and policies were imposed in Dixie. Rather than continue down the road of destruction, Southern nationalists will, if given the opportunity, end the failed experiment in democracy and equality in Southern cities and restore civilisation and the rule of law. We will not permit people to be preyed upon by Third World elements. Part of this will entail halting the US government’s policies of promoting demographic replacement and therefore avoiding the chaos and social destruction these policies inflict upon communities. Accountability (political, judicial, educational and otherwise) will be restored and a code of honour, once vital to the functioning of our civilisation, will be encouraged. We will restore local control of education (along with a reality-based, Southern model of education) and end forced-integration, thus allowing good schools to re-emerge even in cities such as Birmingham, Memphis and Atlanta. We will encourage self-determination on the local level rather than centralising power. Functioning, safe suburbs should not be subjected to the rule of corrupt Third World governments such as the City of Birmingham. We would also recognise the important role of natural elites in leading their communities and providing local services (the marginalisation and destruction of the Southern elite paved the way towards creating the current mess). Rather than continue with the Progressive model which has wrecked the city, Southern nationalists would restore a classical model emphasising sustainability, continuity, family, faith, tradition, honour and civilisation. These are the broad outlines of Southern nationalist reform. They are the basis of the sort of policies and values which made Birmingham successful and which could make it successful once again. What is the alternative? More of the same. But clearly the ‘New South’ model is not working in Birmingham. It’s time to consider Southern solutions for the problems faced by a Southern city wrecked by US policies and values.