"I notice the Far Leftists on this site are envious of the powerful, per usual."

That is one of the most asinine statements I've seen on CD...ever. Hey Minotaur, tell us who in this world is not "envious" in some way of the "powerful" - whether Leftist or Rightist.

Maybe a hermit in a cave in the Himalayas?

I find it ironic that the so called FREE MARKET system requires so much secret planning to gain the great benefits of the invisible hand of the market.

Bottom line is that the economic theory these guys work on is 'get yours first jack and screw the rest'. Later on they get some trained monkeys with PhDs in economics to blow enough smoke to convince the people not to believe their own eyes.

EMPIRE OF SHAME, by Jean Ziegler

Book review by Luc Guillory

Well-known activist and writer Professor Jean Ziegler is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and is also a senior Professor at the University of Geneva and the University of Sorbonne, Paris. He teaches sociology and has written many books, including books about hunger. In his book L'Empire de la Honte (Empire of Shame), he explains the mechanisms which enable multinational corporations to behave like new feudal rulers, and how they use debt as a weapon of mass destruction to force national governments and their populations to give up their sovereignty and freedom for the sake of vested interests.

"Eu tenho cola, porque no tenho vida - I have glue [to sniff] because I have no life," a little girl in Recife, Brazil, told Jean Ziegler while he was investigating the impact of debt and hunger in that country. The reality of hungry or ill children with no hope, future, education or family life can be directly attributed to the country's foreign debt and its relations with rich countries and multinational businesses, Ziegler says.

Between 1964 and 1985 Brazil's debt increased by 50 per cent due to military expenditure incurred under the pretext of protecting "national security". Foreign investors were offered incentives like tax cuts and other financial benefits but since Brazil could not make such provisions it was forced to become financially dependent on the IMF, the Eximbank (an agency of the US government providing aid in financing and facilitating imports and exports), and other private Western banks.

Debt trap

In 1979, the USA raised its interest rates, and Brazil fell into the debt crisis trap of having to take new loans in order to be able to pay off interest on previous loans. Years later, President Fernando Cardoso chose to raise interest rates in Brazil to attract desperately needed foreign capital. The immediate impact on small businesses was catastrophic; unable to get access to credit, they had to cut back on their activities and dismiss employees. Worse still, the rise in interest rates fuelled speculation. Both foreign and Brazilian investors took personal loans at high interest rates in order to buy Brazilian government bonds.

As the Brazilian crisis deepened, Western banks and Wall Street became concerned about their investments and assets in Brazilian agriculture, industry and services. To end the downward spiral the IMF stepped in with the biggest bail-out ever - credit worth US$30 billion in 2002. (Ironically, just a short while before that, the IMF had refused Argentina a similar rescue package.)

A combination of "heavy Wall Street pressure" plus the IMF rescue deal increased the pressure on the Brazilian government for further privatizations in mines, telecommunications and the petrol and electricity industries. Unemployment rocketted and billions of dollars' worth of national assets were sold off to multinational corporations.

The 'conditionality' of the loans granted by the IMF was that the Brazilian government undertook to maintain economic growth at 3.75 per cent per year. This guaranteed creditors that Brazil would be able to pay back its debt and interest. As a direct consequence, social spending budgets were inevitably slashed and the welfare of the poorest sections of the population was sacrificed to debt servicing.

Shockingly, the Brazilian case is not unique but can be found again and again in various countries and guises throughout the world, says Professor Ziegler. He provides ample illustration throughout his book, with a wide variety of concrete and detailed cases, from Mongolia to Ethiopia and other heavily indebted nations. Each case, though different in its pattern, ends in a similar outcome: increased poverty and millions of homeless, deprived people.

New feudal powers

What is behind this phenomenon of whole countries going bankrupt and being forced to sacrifice the well-being of their own populations to foreign financial institutions?

According to Ziegler, the multinational corporations are the new feudal powers. Their purpose is to maximize profits - whatever the human and national cost in lost jobs, crippled welfare systems and virtually non-existent public spending. They aim to eliminate national controls and "social obstacles", thereby gaining control of the wealth of individual countries.

To achieve their aims they deliberately cause a scarcity of services, of capital and assets, so as to gain control of the global economic system. By way of illustration: in 1964 the global debt of the 122 developing nations was $54 billion; today it is $2,000 billion. At the same time, the net profitability of the 500 most powerful transcontinental corporations is 15 per cent per year. According to Standard & Poors, the financial reserves maintained by the 374 biggest corporations amount to some $555 billion. Despite this they continue to cause job and wage cuts and limit social spending.

Weapon of mass destruction

In 2003, the international 'aid' received by 122 developing countries totalled $54 billion; debt repayment from those developing countries back to the donor countries was a massive $436 billion. Debt, Ziegler says, is the new weapon of mass destruction that the modern feudal powers use to enslave whole countries.

The well-known British NGO Jubilee 2000 has calculated that every five seconds a child dies because of debt. Indebted governments of the South borrow loans with interest rates five to seven times higher than those on the financial markets. Just the annual servicing of this debt prevents them from making any investment in public schools, hospitals and social security, while police and military budgets are maintained, to protect the foreign investments, says Ziegler. Between 1992 and 1997, Cameroon allocated 4 per cent of its budget to social services, but 36 per cent to debt repayment. In Kenya it was 12 per cent and 40 per cent and in Zambia 6 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Although most of these countries keep up with their repayments, their external debt keeps on growing. There are several reasons for the continuous increase in their debt:

most countries produce raw materials but import industrial equipment, the cost of which has risen enormously in the last 20 years; rampant corruption has led elites, with the connivance of Western banks, to indulge in organized corrupt practices; astronomical profits, although made by businesses in developing countries, are controlled by shareholders from rich industrialized countries and sent back to the West. These profits are usually not transferred in the local currency but in US dollars or other major international currencies; most multinational companies in Developing World countries hold patents and receive royalties which are also transferred to the West.

This, Ziegler explains, is how developing countries lose their ability to provide for themselves. Their sources of income are stolen by Western creditors. In the 1970s, Latin America's total foreign debt was $60 billion. In 1980, it was $240 billion, and in 2001 it reached $750 billion. Each individual in Latin America owes, on average, $2,250 to their Western creditors.

Ziegler shows that the gap seems to be widening. Forty years ago, he says, some 400 million people were permanently underfed. Today, their number has more than doubled - to a staggering 842 million people. Meanwhile, the Return on Equity (ROE) of the 500 most powerful transnational companies has remained at a steady 15 per cent level in the US since 2001. Global capitalism, Ziegler explains, has reached a stage where it now experiences a constant economic growth without job-creation and almost no increase in the purchasing power of consumers.

What Ziegler points up is that this issue is not simply about profit and loss, interest rates and investment. It is about endemic violence, hunger and death in countries that are pillaged and broken in this way. In 2002, it is estimated that 4,000 children were killed on the streets of Brazilian cities. The lack of education, of adequate housing and food, the denial of access to healthcare, to paid jobs and security, as well as the loss of personal autonomy, forces huge numbers of people into purposeless lives.

War to serve global feudal rulers

But Ziegler goes a step further. Politics, he says, is exploited to serve the financial interests of giant conglomerates. The war waged by the US-led coalition in Iraq had a very important strategic purpose: not only does Iraq have the world's second largest oil reserves but, thanks to its particular geology, the oil reserves are only a few metres from the surface. To produce a barrel of crude oil in Texas costs $10; in Iraq the same barrel costs less than $1 to produce.

Quoting The New York Times, Ziegler says that in the first quarter of 2004 the net profits of the seven foremost American oil companies grew by 43 per cent. Similarly, other big corporations in military electronics and weapons have experienced skyrocketting profits due to the permanent 'war on terror' waged by the American administration.

Can the indebted countries rebel against the domination of the IMF, asks Ziegler? No, he answers, because each time they appeal to the IMF, they have to write a 'letter of intent' in which they literally give up their sovereignty for the sake of the creditors. There is a conscious underlying strategy of the 'cosmocrats' to maintain those at the bottom in utter poverty, so as to make colossal profits. The continuation of this system of usury relies on the permanent enslavement of whole nations.

The French revolution of 1789 was a step on the journey towards political democracy, and a partial source of inspiration for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In the 20th century, the United Nations tried to secure universal peace; substantial progress has been made in many areas of human endeavour. But we are now facing the most brutal attack on the people's sovereignty by the new feudal lords. Quoting Gracchus Baboeuf, one of the leading figures of the French Revolution and head of the revolutionary group 'Conspiracy of the Equals', Ziegler concludes that we have to "look for the common good", and recognize that the right to happiness, dignity, food and freedom are basic and essential to mankind. This will require the complete transformation of society.

Jean Ziegler, L'Empire de la Honte. Editions Fayard, Paris, France.

Copied from the March 2006 issue of Share International magazine
http://www.shareintl.org/magazine/SI_current.htm#review

------------------------------------- Quotes from Jean Ziegler:

"In a world overflowing with riches, it is an outrageous scandal that more than 826 million people suffer hunger and malnutrition and that every year over 36 million die of starvation and related causes. We must take urgent action now." Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur

In 2003, the international 'aid' received by 122 developing countries totalled $54 billion; debt repayment from those developing countries back to the donor countries was a massive $436 billion.

Forty years ago some 400 million people were permanently underfed. Today, their number has more than doubled - to a staggering 842 million people.

xxx

"Arguing that "another world is possible," he observed that globalization as pursued by the G8 leadership had lost its way and that there was a need for a new "revolution" from below."

One of the most sane and cogent things any official has uttered in a long time.

Revolution. Re-vo-lu-tion! R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N! Get used to seeing, hearing, and saying this word. It will be in every corner of this world within a generation. It is time. Acutally, it's past time, but let's not split hairs. Revolution is good, when needed, and lord knows it's needed. Time for Stockholm Syndrome antics to end. Life on this world is screaming for revolution! It's no longer a matter of if - it's now a matter of when. Gird your loins, horde your coins. The revolution WILL be televised because it will be the only thing going. See you on the other side!

Population, economical and military might of G8 is as assimetrical to the rest of the world as numbers and weaponry of Al Qaeda is assimetrical to 300 million strong American nation and its $1 Trillion military budget. In fact, G8 and so called international insurgency relate to each other as negative relates to positive.

Would someone explain to me why this fact is invisible anywhere save for chosen few like those on this forum?

Not going to happen. Good luck!

Everything should be done to stop these international whores from implementing their diabolical plan to commercialize the world. Alternative summits will only water down the already small international opposition to globalization. Don't get into bed with these whores. Look at how they fucked Bono.
Hoa binh

namvet:

I think Bono enjoyed it.

I think Jon Stewart got it right last night. The eight most powerful leaders are "gathering in Heiligendammmmm to plan a heist." And, of course, to put on a show for us peons: a boxing match between Bush and Putin, and a "Wasser FunPark" -- a generous wash for the unwashed masses. I wonder if I will live long enough to witness these representatives of the corporate aristocracy acknowledge whose votes actually put these eunuchs in office.

The G-8 Summit worked better when it was the G-7. Its absurd for Russia to be a member now that she went back to her abusive dictatorship.

The Representative from the U.N. has his own forums in which to talk with the G-8. Countries are free to associate with one another. Mr. Ziegler should do his job instead of grandstanding in an attempt to shame America and Europe.

I notice the Far Leftists on this site are envious of the powerful, per usual.

Russia has more business in the G-8 than Italy -- G-6 anyone?

It's an elitist forum for aquaring off against the rest of the world. Shitcanning it should have happened years ago.

I vote for G-0.

As if a vote really matters.

As if these psuedo-leaders on a psuedo-pedestal care about anyone "below" or any other continent.

What they care about is how they can exploit.

SOS (Same Old S***)

Ken

go to the US Social Forum!

The US Social Forum is more than a conference, more than a networking bonanza, more than a reaction to war and repression.

People world-wide know that another world is needed. The Social Forum movement believes that another world is possible. At the US Social Forum people from all over the country will gather to think about what kind of world is needed and how we can get there.

The US Social Forum is a very special kind of gathering: one that has never taken place in this country up to now. It isn't a conference with an agenda and a program of events; it's a gathering whose participants produce our own agenda and our own programs.

The mere process of planning, thinking, talking and preliminary organizing will move you, the people you're working with and the rest of us forward. The moment you think of an idea, you are already participating in the Social Forum.

Karlos Schmieder
Co-chair, Communications Working Group, USSF
karlos(a)youthmediacouncil.org

Ken, if you still have yesterdays edition of Common Dreams, read the last two letters in the Cheny blocks promotin. Let me know what you think of it

I'm in agreement with Ken and Moonraven. The G8 or G7 or G-Zed - outlived its purpose, if it ever had one. I am tired of wealth being the only criterium for governing, the only yardstick to measure worth, the only group with Congressional clout, the only way to be counted. Even movies, for crying-out-loud, are rated by box office dollars, after the fact instead of redeeming social value and content providing the reasons to buy a ticket. Color me disgusted by the whole schmier.

The farming subsidies issue is moot because all food should be locally produced. The small farmers would rather sell locally anyhow. Why? Because global commodity markets are controlled in the emerald cities, e.g. Chicago, so the farmer is forced to take orders. Chicago decides what is grown. Chicago decides the price. Chicago decides what inputs are put on the crops. And its even worst in the other sectors. The craftsmen and merchants have to close up shop and go to work in the factory or Wal-Mart. Craftsmen and merchants would rather run their own shops. Ignore the G8. Go local. Support your local small independent farmers, craftsmen and merchants.

How do rich people always obtain their riches? That's right, they steal them from the poor. They always have and always will. G8 is gang of mobsters holding the 3rd world hostage for their gain. Another world must be possible, otherwise there won't be a world at all after these criminals have raped the earth completely.

iammyself: Hard to say whether the revolution, which perhaps many generations have longed for, will be violent or velvet.

I've oft wondered about an essential problem the mob (like royalty) must deal with. When one generation declines & dies (old age is the inevitable assassin), the torch must pass. Will it pass to an inherited prince (King Bush II) by mere birthright or will it pass to an unrelated mobster -- who lacks birthright, but may be a far more effective leader, organizer, plunderer, plotter, etc.

The vast bulk of my generation (X-Gen) who I've met, whether here in the US, foreign students, etc. are quite unlike the Boomers. When the torch passes to us, if the Boomers haven't burnt the entire planet with it, I'm sincerely hoping we can get it right this time. The Boomers, it seems to me, are in an extraordinary state of denial.

Minotaur: "I notice the Far Leftists on this site are envious of the powerful, per usual."

seditious "That is one of the most asinine statements I've seen on CD…ever. Hey Minotaur, tell us who in this world is not "envious" in some way of the "powerful" - whether Leftist or Rightist."

I'm not envious of the bastards; I wouldn't want to be like them at all. I'm a member of the working poor and as far as I'm concerned the rich and powerful in this country makes me want to puke.

Their addicts and their no different than someone who is addicted to drugs.

Paul Bramscher; "Hard to say whether the revolution, which perhaps many generations have longed for, will be violent or velvet."

I think it could be peaceful if we start voting the power base out. We have to start in our cities and work our way up through the state and onto the federal level. We have to kick the foundation out from under the powerful in government. That foundations first level is the local government with the county, and state governments layered on top.

We got to get rid of the notion that just because someone is very wealthy doesn't mean their qualified to run the government for the best of everyone. Just remember a big part of the reason a person is very/extremely wealthy is because he figured out a way to take advantage of the system and exploited it.

I have no problems with people becoming wealthy but that's not a reason to use that wealth to control others. That's what the wealthy is doing and we're their enablers when we vote them into office.

In Christian terms the USA could be called Goliath, and/or the beast 666 - the anti-christ that has fooled even 'the elect'. In Moslem terms it could be called the great Satan, or one miserable bully of a nation run by infidels. In medical terms, one could correctly say that the USA is like a cancerous tumor, sucking the life force from healthy cells.

Regardless of people's beliefs, it seems that all sensible people who respect life and know the dark truth about the American empire would agree that it must make some huge changes that must demonstrate respect for all other life, including the environment.

It can't continue as it has in the past. It is a menace to mankind.

To hell with the Iraqi occupation and all the US politicians who've supported it by handing Bush a hundred billion dollars. Also to hell with all "non-binding" agreements. "Non-binding" means bullshit.

..free-market is a myth (think Enron and the California power crisis..), capitalism a dogma (just like communism once was) and globalization a con game.
If it were not so dramatic, it would be fun to read all the rethorics in favour of a system which, to put it simply, is nothing more than a perpetual pipe-line draining the world resources into a few privileged pockets. Just read the numbers. Read Ziegler, who knows what he is talking about. Read Stigliz, Economy nobel prize, who was World Bank president for some time, and should also know what he is talking about.

I heard someone mention revolution. My friend, prepare for a long wait. People are just too busy accumulating material things, which they are told will make them happy. Bank loans are the ultimate counter- revolutionary weapon. Time to listen to Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", a classic if there ever was one...

IF the revolution comes, it will come from the thirld world, from people with absolutely nothing to lose, like those illegal African migrants whose bodies wash ashore by hundreds each week on the european coastline.

Read. Educate yourself. Pass the truth around.Don't let so called "experts" tell their lies without reacting. Bullshit is bullshit, even when formulated with Harvard or Yale arrogance. React to your news media when such lies or disinformation are presented

As for the Boomers, they 've dropped the ball. Here in France, we have just elected a pro-business, pro-globalization President, with a platform aiming at tearing apart all the social protections that were put in place in the 50's. He was massively supported by the senior group age (55+), which was at the core, 40 years ago, of the Youth Movement which nearly toppled de Gaulle in may 68.

One of the main tenets of capitalism is "competition". You could search for eons in the pro-globalization litterature before u find the word "cooperation" (meaning "mutually profitable cooperation", not what is going on in some thirld world countries today).

In fact, what they mean by "competition" could , and should, be spelled out as "social darwinism".
Ask yourself: how can u be "competitive", when u are pitched against a competitor in a thirld world country who will do your job for a fraction of your salary? How much "flexibility" (I love those words..) will you have to exhibit in order to retain your job?

It began in the 60s with the closing down of steel factories and coal mines, and heavy duty production. Only unqualified/poorly qualified workers were concerned.

the general comment was "well, too bad, but they would not be in that mess if they had worked hard in college...".

then it was the textile industry: same comments
then...well u know the story..

Now even qualified, Ingeneer and Management level jobs are out sourced or delocalized. Tomorrow, you will be checked up by your physician thru your computer. There's a high chance that he will be operating from a foreign country.

there's also a high chance that your computer hot line, or car rental, or Air company, or else, is working from some "more profitable" country

The western masses are so deluded by consumerism that they don't understand what's going on, happy to feast on whatever falls down from the Masters' table.

One hope, only: the logic of capitalism (in short "everything for profit and material gain")contains its own time-bomb: delocalization and cost-cutting has its limits.

You still need consummers to buy your products...

Presently, there is only one course of action that may really have an influence on all this mess: we have to push for a tight control of Speculative Hedge Funds, and put an end to financial heavens and bank secrecy.

The massive power of hedge funds (with their constant, obssesive objective of double-digit-figures benefit) is greatly responsible for the way the globalization is going on
today

Frantz I agree,

It is all about selfinesh and greed vs love and cooperation. At the moment Greed is King

Economics is a pseudo-science wrapped in statistics, for each brilliant academic argument there is a counter-argument just as brilliant.

What other academic discipline has issued famous and reputable prizes for academics sponsoring opposite points of view and mutually exclusive theories ?

There is hope for love and cooperation, Socialism of the 21st Century, Chaves in Venezuela is one example.

Poor countries have land and cheap labor, sometimes even oil and other valuable resources, they should stop playing the game set up by International Capital and become independent, Cuba is one example, they are not rich; but everybody is healthy and free from exploitation. Camaraderie and Cooperation is their economic model.

Capital only responds to profit, nothing else, American Corporations are not American, they are just Capitalists, globalization is their game.

Instead of wealth being the determining factor behind such summits, regional location might be a better issue - North America, South America, Africa, The Middle East, West Asia, East Asia, Northern Asia, Central Asia, (Asia is big), Western, Eastern and Northern Europe, Australia, the Pacific Islands, etc.

What's needed is some organization that can represent all the countries of the world - oh, wait - isn't that what the United Nations was formed for?

A similar idea is to redraw political districts around ecological boundaries - such as watersheds. If you all share the same watershed, you all have a common political interest - this would do away with gerrymandered districts.

The fact that the U.S. has been & is currently engaged in building -a miltarily garrisoned worldwide empire across the world in numerous proxy nations of both hemispheres that it has either invaded, economically & politically subverted, bought or pressured -may have something to do with its inability to give more than Greece!!!

"The vast bulk of my generation (X-Gen) who I've met, whether here in the US, foreign students, etc. are quite unlike the Boomers. When the torch passes to us, if the Boomers haven't burnt the entire planet with it, I'm sincerely hoping we can get it right this time. The Boomers, it seems to me, are in an extraordinary state of denial."

Paul,

Indeed, the Boomers have dropped the ball. Being as that I was born smack dab in the middle of the Boomer gen, I know from whence I speak. However, I don't see it as much of a generational issue as that of a societal issue. I know Boomers who are very conscious of what's going on, and younger people who can't see past their PS2's. I see elders who are out in the streets and working for change and others who are ensconced in gated communities playing bridge.

Denial is the dis-ease that affects most of this society, and even then, it is by degrees. We see what we choose to see (and most of the time, it relates to the "others", never "me") or what we think we know.

Regardless, the machine grinds away and whether we all know what it's doing or not, we feel the effects.

Revolution is inevitable in a culture like ours for the simple reason that our culture demands that other cultures and ways of living be wiped out. It also demands human sacrifice. That's fine - as long as the sacrifice is "out there", we can continue to play with our toys and do other things to keep our minds from understanding the deal. However, there comes a time when the hits land very close to home, and then we feel enough heat to react. We are starting to feel the heat. The machine is now grinding up our kids, and what's worse (hey, we can always make more kids), it's coming for us. Uh oh...time to do something!

Velvet or not, the revolution is right around the corner. Like any great wave, we can either get in front of it and ride it, or be smacked down into the sand by its force. It's up to us.