(no subject)
In three weeks I'll be in florida. I'm not as stoked as I thought I would be. I wish I was driving around the country eating stale pretzals and drinking bitter coffee brewed twice too many times.
I've been sick so many times this winter and I have approximately 12 dollars in my bank account about 60% of the time. I need to stop recieving bills and paying them and still having shitty credit.
Awesome. It snowed today and I was so stoked until I fell asleep for 4 hours in the middle of the day and now it feels like morning.
I need to learn to play a banjo and john needs to come home so i can ramble to him and get stoned on the back of jenna's car
oh yeah i wrote this little rant...in case you wanted to learn about globalization from my perspective:
Foreign Aid: The incoherent ramblings of the man, the government, economy, and the world
First and foremost, I am bias. Which is not to say that I am incapable of being unbiased or that these topics cannot be presented in a manner unfettered by emotional or other attachments but the book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is bias. It is written from the perspective of a man with a predisposition toward distrust of American government and corporations.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man written by John Perkins is an insider’s look at international economic affairs. John Perkins writes about his career as a consultant for corporations. His career began when he was in the peace corp. and was recruited by the National Security Agency (N.S.A.) for his ease into other cultures. He believes that the N.S.A. uses corporations to employ economic hit men (E.H.M.) so that if anyone ever caught on, the government and big business would not be connected. Perkins believes that the N.S.A. was the root to his work because in short he was first brought in by the N.S.A. for massive testing to see if he qualified for work and then later called by Chas T. Main, a large consulting firm. Basically his job was to go to a country, study what the area needed to grow “economically” and exaggerate that to the government of the country thereby creating larger deals for American construction companies and higher amounts of loans for banks that can tax the hell out of it. Now, I’m sure you’re thinking, wow that sounds sketchy. But he describes his job as “deal-making.” In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he describes is work specifically as, “giving loans to other countries, huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of the loan-let's say a $1 billion to a country like Indonesia or Ecuador-and this country would then have to give ninety percent of that loan back to a U.S. company, or U.S. companies, to build the infrastructure-a Halliburton or a Bechtel.” The catch in the whole scam is that the governments of many of these nations allocate a large portion of the funds to personal use, so who is really the bad guy?
John Perkins’s work has many names. His company called him an economist, he calls himself an economic hit man, and the world calls it foreign aid. Foreign aid according to Government by the People (5th ed.) is economic assistance to countries which the U.S. deems as “of strategic importance.”(p. 467) Similar to Perkins’s description, Government by the People states that “regardless of which nation receives the aid, most foreign aid is actually spent in the United States, where it pays for the purchase of American services and products being sent to those countries. It thus amounts to a hefty subsidy for American companies and their employees.” (p. 468)
When foreign aid and deal-making fall out of the line-up, the U.S. government moves to the next step: jackals. According to Perkins’ jackals are C.I.A.-sanctioned men and women that come in and attempt to stir up trouble. They try to start a revolution, form a coup, or just push a city here and there into entropy.
If all else fails, assassination is the last resort. Panama and Ecuador are the best examples of the how the U.S. uses these tactics to secure another nation into our circle of trust. Jaime Roldos was the President of Ecuador in the 80’s. He was very similar to Omar Torrijos, who was well-known for his stiff almost left political worldview. Both Torrijos and Roldos were men that believed in the power of democratic principles, the people, and the importance of environment. They were both known for their impenetrable morality and virtuous nature. They were leaders that could not be bought. Roldos was on the verge of changing business in Ecuador and Latin America for good. After kicking out the Summer Institute of Linguistics (a well-known dual faced religious and research organization that was funded by oil companies and other destructive forces) and forcing any and all foreign interests to leave unless they were there to help Ecuador. Soon after that Roldos died in a “fiery” helicopter crash. Torrijos had not only also kicked out Summer Institute of Linguistics, but he’d signed a treaty with Carter that forced the School of America’s (S.O.A, also known as the School of Assassins) out of Panama. Reagan hated him and American corporations- especially those involved in Canal work- despised him. Two months after Roldos’s death, Torrijos was killed in a helicopter explosion. Now, I’m guessing that either Perkins’, many Latin American investigators, and School of Americas Watch (a leftist organization that watch S.O.A. and central and south American politics) are right about these being assassinations or maybe they just keep getting really faulty planes in that part of the world.
Now, that all sounds like mostly C.I.A. work, right? But it’s not. The World Bank is also closely tied in. During the “down with red campaign,” otherwise known as the anti-communist era the S.O.A., the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) were created. All three of the organizations began with good reason, to save the poor and stomp out those commies and socialists. The S.O.A. was created to fight off or hold down communist and socialist uprisings - to keep the masses under control. The World Bank and I.M.F. were started to help reconstruct all the damage in Europe after World War II. By the 1980’s communism was no longer dirty word, it was a sock we lost in the laundry a long time ago. The World Bank and I.M.F. were still working though and the S.O.A. was now based in the United States. This supported Perkins’ in his belief that the communist regimes were simply an excuse for the World Bank, the I.M.F., and the S.O.A. to perpetuate what in his era was tied into Economic Hit Men.
Government by the People (5th ed.) describes the actions, organizations, and policies Perkins’ takes such issue with as a part of U.S. Foreign Policy. U.S. foreign policy according to the framers of our constitution only relies on three basic guidelines: “foreign policy [is] a national, not state, responsibility;” “authority to make foreign and defense policy [is the presidents right];” and the third rule makes it so that the President’s decisions are basically checked by congress and the senate. However, none of these guidelines apply if the President or anyone else for that matter is relying on indirect diplomacy. Foreign aid is a form of indirect diplomacy and therefore almost justifies any actions the United States has made. Assassinations, loans, companies, and coups supported by the U.S. government are - if the connections were proven by more credible sources- forms of indirect diplomacy and in that right free from legal and moral taxation.
According to the textbook Mr. Perkins isn’t just another government skeptic hating corporations with a bleeding heart. Americans on average are overwhelmingly distrusting of the government. Since the September 11th attacks however, those numbers have fluctuated quite a bit. We are also leery of big business and want to help the poor. Strange, John Perkins’s tales are from the perspective of the average American male. (I didn’t make this up check p.82 and 91)
Summarily, John Perkins wrote a book on how foreign aid and diplomacy really works. He wrote it as an adventure and exposed quite a few lesser known conspiracies along the way. I went to an S.O.A. protest last weekend. In one of the conferences we discussed knocking down the pillars of the oppressor, the enemy, or the other side of the argument. Using the term Us versus Them is candidly inappropriate, yet in neoconservative wars it is the underlying rule from the Bush Doctrine. Events like September 11th occur because of assassinations of leaders like Torrijos, because of shady deals like with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and because of companies like Coca-Cola. Anti-American sentiment is a growing facet in globalization. We need to begin to recognize it and change those loopholes in our system that foster deregulation and privatization into loopholes that work for the people of the world.
I've been sick so many times this winter and I have approximately 12 dollars in my bank account about 60% of the time. I need to stop recieving bills and paying them and still having shitty credit.
Awesome. It snowed today and I was so stoked until I fell asleep for 4 hours in the middle of the day and now it feels like morning.
I need to learn to play a banjo and john needs to come home so i can ramble to him and get stoned on the back of jenna's car
oh yeah i wrote this little rant...in case you wanted to learn about globalization from my perspective:
Foreign Aid: The incoherent ramblings of the man, the government, economy, and the world
First and foremost, I am bias. Which is not to say that I am incapable of being unbiased or that these topics cannot be presented in a manner unfettered by emotional or other attachments but the book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is bias. It is written from the perspective of a man with a predisposition toward distrust of American government and corporations.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man written by John Perkins is an insider’s look at international economic affairs. John Perkins writes about his career as a consultant for corporations. His career began when he was in the peace corp. and was recruited by the National Security Agency (N.S.A.) for his ease into other cultures. He believes that the N.S.A. uses corporations to employ economic hit men (E.H.M.) so that if anyone ever caught on, the government and big business would not be connected. Perkins believes that the N.S.A. was the root to his work because in short he was first brought in by the N.S.A. for massive testing to see if he qualified for work and then later called by Chas T. Main, a large consulting firm. Basically his job was to go to a country, study what the area needed to grow “economically” and exaggerate that to the government of the country thereby creating larger deals for American construction companies and higher amounts of loans for banks that can tax the hell out of it. Now, I’m sure you’re thinking, wow that sounds sketchy. But he describes his job as “deal-making.” In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he describes is work specifically as, “giving loans to other countries, huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of the loan-let's say a $1 billion to a country like Indonesia or Ecuador-and this country would then have to give ninety percent of that loan back to a U.S. company, or U.S. companies, to build the infrastructure-a Halliburton or a Bechtel.” The catch in the whole scam is that the governments of many of these nations allocate a large portion of the funds to personal use, so who is really the bad guy?
John Perkins’s work has many names. His company called him an economist, he calls himself an economic hit man, and the world calls it foreign aid. Foreign aid according to Government by the People (5th ed.) is economic assistance to countries which the U.S. deems as “of strategic importance.”(p. 467) Similar to Perkins’s description, Government by the People states that “regardless of which nation receives the aid, most foreign aid is actually spent in the United States, where it pays for the purchase of American services and products being sent to those countries. It thus amounts to a hefty subsidy for American companies and their employees.” (p. 468)
When foreign aid and deal-making fall out of the line-up, the U.S. government moves to the next step: jackals. According to Perkins’ jackals are C.I.A.-sanctioned men and women that come in and attempt to stir up trouble. They try to start a revolution, form a coup, or just push a city here and there into entropy.
If all else fails, assassination is the last resort. Panama and Ecuador are the best examples of the how the U.S. uses these tactics to secure another nation into our circle of trust. Jaime Roldos was the President of Ecuador in the 80’s. He was very similar to Omar Torrijos, who was well-known for his stiff almost left political worldview. Both Torrijos and Roldos were men that believed in the power of democratic principles, the people, and the importance of environment. They were both known for their impenetrable morality and virtuous nature. They were leaders that could not be bought. Roldos was on the verge of changing business in Ecuador and Latin America for good. After kicking out the Summer Institute of Linguistics (a well-known dual faced religious and research organization that was funded by oil companies and other destructive forces) and forcing any and all foreign interests to leave unless they were there to help Ecuador. Soon after that Roldos died in a “fiery” helicopter crash. Torrijos had not only also kicked out Summer Institute of Linguistics, but he’d signed a treaty with Carter that forced the School of America’s (S.O.A, also known as the School of Assassins) out of Panama. Reagan hated him and American corporations- especially those involved in Canal work- despised him. Two months after Roldos’s death, Torrijos was killed in a helicopter explosion. Now, I’m guessing that either Perkins’, many Latin American investigators, and School of Americas Watch (a leftist organization that watch S.O.A. and central and south American politics) are right about these being assassinations or maybe they just keep getting really faulty planes in that part of the world.
Now, that all sounds like mostly C.I.A. work, right? But it’s not. The World Bank is also closely tied in. During the “down with red campaign,” otherwise known as the anti-communist era the S.O.A., the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) were created. All three of the organizations began with good reason, to save the poor and stomp out those commies and socialists. The S.O.A. was created to fight off or hold down communist and socialist uprisings - to keep the masses under control. The World Bank and I.M.F. were started to help reconstruct all the damage in Europe after World War II. By the 1980’s communism was no longer dirty word, it was a sock we lost in the laundry a long time ago. The World Bank and I.M.F. were still working though and the S.O.A. was now based in the United States. This supported Perkins’ in his belief that the communist regimes were simply an excuse for the World Bank, the I.M.F., and the S.O.A. to perpetuate what in his era was tied into Economic Hit Men.
Government by the People (5th ed.) describes the actions, organizations, and policies Perkins’ takes such issue with as a part of U.S. Foreign Policy. U.S. foreign policy according to the framers of our constitution only relies on three basic guidelines: “foreign policy [is] a national, not state, responsibility;” “authority to make foreign and defense policy [is the presidents right];” and the third rule makes it so that the President’s decisions are basically checked by congress and the senate. However, none of these guidelines apply if the President or anyone else for that matter is relying on indirect diplomacy. Foreign aid is a form of indirect diplomacy and therefore almost justifies any actions the United States has made. Assassinations, loans, companies, and coups supported by the U.S. government are - if the connections were proven by more credible sources- forms of indirect diplomacy and in that right free from legal and moral taxation.
According to the textbook Mr. Perkins isn’t just another government skeptic hating corporations with a bleeding heart. Americans on average are overwhelmingly distrusting of the government. Since the September 11th attacks however, those numbers have fluctuated quite a bit. We are also leery of big business and want to help the poor. Strange, John Perkins’s tales are from the perspective of the average American male. (I didn’t make this up check p.82 and 91)
Summarily, John Perkins wrote a book on how foreign aid and diplomacy really works. He wrote it as an adventure and exposed quite a few lesser known conspiracies along the way. I went to an S.O.A. protest last weekend. In one of the conferences we discussed knocking down the pillars of the oppressor, the enemy, or the other side of the argument. Using the term Us versus Them is candidly inappropriate, yet in neoconservative wars it is the underlying rule from the Bush Doctrine. Events like September 11th occur because of assassinations of leaders like Torrijos, because of shady deals like with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and because of companies like Coca-Cola. Anti-American sentiment is a growing facet in globalization. We need to begin to recognize it and change those loopholes in our system that foster deregulation and privatization into loopholes that work for the people of the world.