Last night, Riz Khan, who is Al-Jazeera's counter to CNN's Larry King, interviewed John Perkins, a former economic hit man.
Not sure what an Economic Hit Man (EHM) is? Neither was I until Perkins laid it out for a dummy like me to understand:
"There were two primary objectives of my work. First I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money to Main and other US companies (such as Bechtel, Halliburton, Stone & Webster and Brown & Root) through massive engineering and construction projects. Second, I would work to bankrupt the countries that received those loans . . . so they would be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we [the US] needed favours, including military bases, UN votes or access to oil and other natural resources."
- Excerpt from Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Here's the bigger picture of how EHM's work to permanently cripple a nation's economy:
1. Economic hit men, working for imperialistic engines of capitalism (otherwise known as the American empire, the G8 nations, and their multinational corporations) identify impoverished nations in need of major development of their infrastructure.
2. Using vehicles such as the IMF, USAID, and the World Bank, they generously make billion dollar loans to Country X to help develop and advance the nation. In addition, they are nice enough to generate complex plans of national development to help guide the locals.
3. However, since the country has no homegrown industries to actually carry out said programs of development, America and its cohorts will contract out the services to their own corporations. Thus the loans go directly from the Western governments back to Western corporations, with some skimming off the top by corrupt local officials in Country X.
4. Once the billions have been squandered, normally on special pet projects that only benefit the select few, Country X is hamstrung for the next century struggling to pay off the loans. This means that domestic funds which normally would have gone to provide basic services to the locals are now rerouted to the coffers of the West.
5. But the altruistic West is not done screwing, er I mean saving, Country X. They kindly propose to bail out Country X by waving some of the loans, but with a few minor strings attached. For example, Country X must cease to provide governmental subsidies to local industries and at the same time open the doors to free trade by doing away with tariffs and other trade barriers, essentially destroying any chance of sustainable livelihood by its citizens. Or another example would be Country Y has to sell natural resources A, B, and C or O, I, and L at below-market cost to the West.
And there you go, five easy steps to eternal financial debt and a grim future of poverty and despair for every developing and under-developed country.
And before you accuse me of propogating conspiracy theories and freemasonry crap, this stuff is pure and simple capitalistic greed.
The same inertia that powered the American auto industry to destroy the public transit system and is currently undermining the hybrid car is behind the EHM phenomenon. And its that same mentality that prevents the billion-dollar pharmaceuticals from allowing cheap generic drugs to enter the markets of the Third World.
These imperialistic engines of capitalism are very real and very ugly.
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8 comments:
It's amazing how this all fits in to the hikmah of Islam prohibiting usury/interest.
What fuels capitalism, is well... capital. Capital with usury/interest. A tool in the hands of those who want to enslave.
If Muslims simply avoid dealing in riba, then at least we can avoid this neo-slavery. But then again, that's as probable as Santa Claus accepting Islam.
Jazakallah for the post, very interesting.
Abu Mus'ab
www.islamblog.org
Another reason why GM was able to do what it did was because of ineffective anti-trust laws. :)
Assalaamu Alaikum Naeem
Interesting post--thanks.
Keep talking buddy.... Nothing you can do about. If counties are so stupid to let this happen to them, let it be. This is life and at least they get developed. People are happier; they have medicines, technology, cars, new stuff, and lot of luxury goods. Thanks to the WEST… how would you know the EAST without it? Ha? At the end, without the WEST half of the EAST is dead by now …. For example, Libyans at the time of sanctions, they had to travel to Egypt for get X-Ray or pay $200 USD in Libya. Yes, WEST is merciless; but only if you don't take care of yourself; crying won't help.
Assalamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullah
I pray that you are in the best of health & imaan.
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AA- All,
@Abu Mus'ab - "If Muslims simply avoid dealing in riba, then at least we can avoid this neo-slavery."
Very true, but its not only about staying away from Riba - its about taking a strong stance against foreign pressures, economic as well as political. And *that* is definitely as probable as Santa Clause becoming Muslim. :-)
@Anon, I agree that the ultimate blame is on the stupid/greedy countries and their leaders. However, I can't see how you conclude that the people are happier? What are you basing this upon?
Salam BrNaeem,
Great post. Especially timely after I read this very interesting article about how Malawi was able to turn its fortune around by ignoring donor pressure to cut government subsidies for farmers to buy fertilizer for their crops.
Definetly worth a read, since its directly relevant to what you're pointing out here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
Check out Uncle Sam's role in this - discouraging what works:
"The United States, which has shipped $147 million worth of American food to Malawi as emergency relief since 2002, but only $53 million to help Malawi grow its own food, has not provided any financial support for the subsidy program, except for helping pay for the evaluation of it. Over the years, the United States Agency for International Development has focused on promoting the role of the private sector in delivering fertilizer and seed, and saw subsidies as undermining that effort."
AA Naeem. Not to worry. Greed always catches up with people by the Will of Allah. Look how LOWLY the American dollar is and well hated America has become. Even greedy people come to realize that greed has its price!
Hey what happened to the "Other" category when posting comments?
~Sahra
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