Confessions of an Economic Hitman - by John Perkins

The book is a critical outline of the newest form of imperialism that has been for the last decades subtilely replacing the decimating well-known military imperialistic era. It comprises a collection of confessional narratives by John Perkins, who unveils the reality from an inside the system perspective. 

The book intermingles the author's personal memoirs with fragments of historical and political episodes. The book is sometimes clumpsy in terms of expressiveness and narrative value, surely not outstanding as a piece of literature. It has a more journalistic approach, and the book's merits are solely due to its informational content. So, if you consider reading it, close an eye of criticism over the amateurish writing style.

    

The story goes shortly like this. Being recruited as an Economics Specialist for an influential Construction Company, the author is entitled the role of planning and forecasting the economic outcomes of the company's prospective projects in a number of developing countries. Shortly, he will discover he is not going to do the realistic forecasts he would have expected and will understand the rationale behind the investments in these unfortunate countries.

The seemingly generous good Samaritans global money-lenders, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, offer great loans to support infrastructural, technological and service investments in the willing-to-develop countries. Without the basic technological capacity of implementing the funded infrastructural reforms, these countries also need assistance from experienced American companies to do that. So, that's what happens.

Economic experts like Perkins come up with over-optimistic and non-realistic predictions of how the foreign investments will impact the economy of the country. The forecasts predict an economic boom and implicitly encourage the subdued countries to get the loans. The reality is that these loans are far over the country's economic capacity, and that on long term the states that took loans become seriously indebted, without soon perspectives of recovery. That guarantees the Americans will have access to whatever their interests in that particular country is: natural resources, military bases, political dominance.

This new form of enslaving nations from a financial viewpoint is what the author argues is the newest and a more subtle form of imperialism, most often hidden through what he calls "corporatocracy". The whole process is wrapped up under a well-desguised facade. Although serving the state's interest, the "economic hitmen" are employed by big corporations as specialists. Even if the outcomes of the plot will one day become evident, the negative publicity will be all on the greed of corporations, and the real players behind the dirty game will be safely secluded. 

There are some very powerful stories of how some targeted country were seduced into this trick and how they suffered in the aftermath of the events. From far Asian to South American countries, here are some striking stories I would like to share.

Saudi Arabia 

One of the depictions I enjoyed the most was the Saudi Arabia affair. It is somehow a reverse situation, in which the USA is caught into a very sensitive and painful situation. It reminded me how tightly interconnected and inter-relied are nations and how catastrophic outcomes can emerge when these ties are loosened.

In the 1970s, the oil-providing arabic nations were debating an embargo on the pro-israeli nations. The initial measure of 5% monthly increasing taxes, suddenly jumped to a total embargo, triggered by USA's decision of openly pumping substantial sums to Israel. The 6-months embargo threw the country in total chaos and crisis. The lesson was learnt. USA looked for solutions in avoiding a similar situations again. 

The solution came along with the Arabi Saudi fascination with the Western World. The rich arabs started having contact with the Western World, and harbored the idea of shaping their own country in a western-like state. There is where their oil-dependant counterpart seized the opportunity. They sold the Saudi Arabs the western dream. They offered to reshape their country and equip it with all the technological mightiness and modern facilities they want, in exchange to protectionist policies and never-to-happen-again embargo.

And here starts the Cinderella-like evolution from a country that used goats as street-sanitation maintenance into a present-day symbol of luxurious opulence and richness. USA's money spent for oil were coming back into the country through massive services invested in Saudi Arabia. The threatening rising power of SA and its non-compliant changes with traditional islamic views, meant the country needed also military training to be prepared for possible angered arabic countries. The dependancy on American expertise was set.

That's how USA brilliantly secured their oil provisions, allying with the top world oil-provider and ensuring the a long-run dependency. 

Indonesia

Indonesia has been for generations an irresistible attraction for the Western world. When Columbus set foot in Americas, he was actually trying to reach Indonesia, at the time known as the Spice Islands. Throughout the colonial era it was a main reason for clashes between the imperialistic powers, being considered a treasure for its spices, fabrics and opulent kingdoms. Finally, the Netherlands emerged triumphant, conquering Java.

Then Japanese invaded Indonesia during the Second World War, and the Dutch oppossed little resistance. After the Japanese retreat, a local leader rose and achieved independance. Ruling the country wasn't an easy task. The country consisted of over 15 000 islands, composed of countless tribes, different language dialects and internal conflicts between ethnics groups.
Sukarno, the new risen leader sought support from the Communist governments around the globe, making alliances in exchange for military equipment and training.

Around 1970s USA was determined to seduce Indonesia out of communism, as the Vietnam War was looking more and more uncertain. Consequently, Sukarno was overthrown and replaced with the head of the military force which leaded the coup. From now on, American specialists were taking over a plan of modernization for the country, with a great electrification plan for the country. It meant they wanted to grow their influence in the area, as they were loosing on other grounds. They were trying to copy the model of Saudi Arabia in Southern-Central Asia. Indonesia could become an example of prosperity aided by democratic powers, among communist countries. And it also possessed unknown amounts of oil. The pumped up economic predictions for a westernised society had begun, again.

Panama - Panama Canal

Panama Canal was the target of numerous interests. The first attempt in constructing the canal was made by then imperialists French, who ruled the area. They failed miserably in the construction process, and ended up financially broke.

Theodore Roosevelt was observing the incident and got obsessed with the idea of taking up the construction of the canal. Panama was then under Colombia's rule. Roosevelt commenced negotiating with Columbia for ceasing Panama. Confronted with Columbia's refusal, the solution was military invasion and declaring Panama an "independent state". This actually is translated with Panama becoming a "buffer state" with its corrupted pro-american puppet leaders, who supported anti-communist movements through-out the Southern hemisphere. This way Panama Canal turned into an American affair.

The narrative changes its beats with the coming to power of Omar Torrijos' figure. He was one of very few brave leaders who stood against the tempting interests sold by the imperialistic forces. He was one of the rare incorruptible leaders, whose goal was the rising of the poor class, becoming very popular among his people. He fought for his nation's rights, trying to stay away from both American or Communist influences and to keep away the pretended democratic "excuses" of democratic powers for invading the nation on anti-communist reasoning.

With the change of the government in USA and with Carter, an ultra-liberal, socialist leader, and with Torrijos demands, the Panama Canal is restituted to the panamanians. 

The death of Torijos in his private airplane crash, a few months after the Ecuador's President Jaime Roldos had faced the same fate, are regarded with suspicion. Their timing coincide with radical political changes in USA, from a strongly liberal to a conservative orientation (Ronald Reagan).

Panama and Ecuador are just two examples of how South American countries have been played around and abused. It explains why, fed up by USA policies and exploitation of resources, with the democratic etiquette, most countries were attracted by the opposed communist system.

Following Torrijos' death, Manuel Noriega replaced him. He was determined to continue his predecessor's agenda defending the Canal's new Treaty. Contrary to the justice-icon Torijjos, he was involved in some drug dealing and other illicit activities, that degraded its reputation.
Not complying to the US demands of extending their Schools of America projects (military schools) in the country, this triggered one of the most legally abusive US intervations. Without any other reasoning, except from calling Noriega an evil, drug-traffiking, enemy of the people leader, US attacked Panama. It was reported the largest air-borne assault on  a city after the WWII and an unprovoked attack on civilian population. Panama had posed no threat to US, any other country or its own people. It was a clear open violation of the international law.
No third parties, Press or humanitarian organizations were allowed to enter Panama for 3 days after the attack. The real casualties remained unknown.

Iran

In 1950s, Iran started revolting against the British company that was exploiting its oil natural resources. Their popular democratically elected prime-minister Mohammad Mossadegh has nationalized all Iranian petrolum assets. Britain was outraged and sought help to their WW2 allies USA.

Fearing an intervation from the Soviet Union on the side of Iran, they came up with another strategy, less evident. Secret agent went over in Iran and instigated street riots and demonstrations, through payoffs and threats, creating the image of an unpopular and unloved prime-minister. That's how Mohammad Mossadegh has been put under home arrest for the rest of his life, and how Reza Shah replaced him, becoming the unchallenged dictator.

It seems shocking how a country that is the embodiment of democracy has purposely kicked off a democratically elected leader, for supporting a dictatorial ruler. Imagine how high the stake.

Venezuela 

Venezuela's story embodies both the patterns of the strategies of the Arabia Saudi money-lending affair and that of Iran's political coup. This time, the outcome is different.

During the Hugo Chavez rule who took more drastic measures to secure the national's oil resources and who stood against the will of the superpower of the North, street demonstrations aroused. Despite bribing military heads, the instigators din not manage to turn the army against Chavez. After less then a day, the apparently overthrown Chavez, has officially repositioned himself. He knew how to play smart and keep his people devoted.

This comes in a context in which Venezuela was by the time the fourth world's oil-exporter. It had a stormy history after suddenly discovering its oil reserves. It was dragged into the same money-lending affair for infrastuctural modernization and experienced deep crisis when oil priced radically dropped and could not pay their debts back. This seriously impacted the population, and reshaped the country's demographics, taking its toll especially from middle class representatives, from whom many fell into the ranks of the poor.

The failure in disposing of Chavez triggered the US backing for solely one reason. It could not afford to be active on so many front lines. They were already having on-going military operations in Afghanistan and were on the edge of striking in Irak. It was Venezuela's stroke of luck.

Iraq

Iraq was just another perfect ground for expanding the US political dominance and economical growth. It could have been the second success story after Saudi Arabia, and was possessing potential greater amounts of oil. Starting with the 1980, US was having its hitmen operating in Iraq and trying to buy Saddam Husein to their side. If Saddam had cooperated, he would have benefited from US support in his political endeavors and secured his influence in that part of the world. It didn't matter he was a pathological tyrant, as long as he obeyed.

Contrary to common public opinion, Iraq was not all about oil. It had also strong geopolitical and water resources. It is situated at the convergence of many influential Middle East countries, so strategically positioned that whoever gets hold of it, has the key to controlling the Middle East.
It also has the two main rivers Tigris and Euphrates running through its land. During the 1980s the importance of water was becoming more obvious, as major energy companies turned their attention into the privatization of water systems in South America, Africa and Middle East.

When in 1990 Saddam had invaded the rich-oil Kuwait, the Bush administration had the perfect alibi for stepping into Iraq. Not long after staging and illegal and unilateral invasion in Panama, they were marketing a war reasoned by Saddam's violation of international law.

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat - by Oliver Sacks

The book is an exploration of the complex human mind, an exploration of individuals under a palette of brain malfunctions. Oliver Sacks reveals some of the spectacular cases he encountered as a neurologist and explains each case’s particularities - the physiological implications, the associated syndromes, the social blockages. He approaches each case, not just from a medical perspective, but with a peculiar sensitivity, with the philosopher's eye. He criticizes the classical approach of neurology and medicine that tends to reduce a human being to a pure mechanized system, rather than see it as a personalized soul with unique character. He gets deeper, exploring the un-investigated and discovering a hidden world of the simple.

The man who mistook his wife for a hat is a musician professor who becomes unable to recognize faces and define objects in accordance with their shape, unless they possess a very distinctive single feature. Images does not integrate in whole, inter-relational, bigger landscapes, but remain isolated objects that often interchange their conventional, logical positions. The whole outside world is sustained by the inner music that fuels the capacity of accomplishing daily tasks. When the inner music stops, so does his coherence with mundane activities. 

The disembodied woman is a young woman whose sudden collapse of feeling her own body, makes impossible the coordination of her body parts and whirls them in a chaotic, out of control play. Her attempts of grabbing or holding things fail, as hands lack motion acuity and seem to have their own will. Her feet feel unsteady on the ground. She ceases to feel her body like her own, she feels disembodied. Struggling to compensate for the loss of her proprioception system, she is able to coordinate her members again only by visual concentration. 

The eyes right woman has lost her “left” consciousness, after the right cerebral hemisphere was severely affected by a stroke. The left visual field is dark, she can not look left, she can not turn left, she regularly forgets to make-up her left-sided face, she can not rotate her plate towards left. All her instinctive impulses, her attention, her natural movements are exclusively to the right. If she wants to finish up her meals, she has to rotate herself towards right until the left side of the plate come into sight. 

An ordinary day in the home ward. A group of aphasia-diagnosed are watching the President’s speech on TV. The speech is accompanied by frequent bursts of laugh. The nature of compensation is showing off. Their idiocy in understanding words has boosted their receptiveness of decrypting the rich spectrum of non-verbal messages: voice tone, intonation, fluctuations and emphasis, all visual cues. The inauthenticity of the speech stimulates their amusement. It’s a show of false gestures and intonations, of ridiculously emphasized tones and grimaces. 
Watching this amused group, one would doubt their capacity of comprehending the speech. One would think the non-verbal language loses its authenticity if not associated with the meaning of words.

But then the speech is also watched by an agnosiac lady, who contrary to the aphasiacs, can not distinguish characteristics of voice (intonation, emotions) behind a spoken message. For her, words and relations between words stand out, unaffected by other   factors. Her analysis of the speech makes one doubt his/her own abilities of getting the right message. To her, the speech in itself was inconsistent and contradictory: “the speaker was either brain-damaged, either had something to conceal...”

Tourette’s syndrome becomes so embedded in one’s life that it becomes part of one’s personality. The uncontrollable seizures, the sometimes violent gestures and words make the Tourette’s patients easily recognizable. A cure for calming their inappropriate reactions would make some fear they would also loose essential personality traits. The improvised and spontaneous gestures can sometimes boost their performance in life. Should a cure threaten one’s consistency with his personality? 

The dog beneath the skin is the story of a young man who experiences extreme enhancement of olfactive senses. This peculiar transition to a primordially olfactive surrounding reality turns his values around. His power of concentration as well as his interests are changing, as he becomes enslaved by the force of smell. The reception of visual information falls on second place, as he now relies on a stronger perceptional input. Places, street corners, objects, humans receive a distinct character through their exclusive smell. The story reveals how the well proportioned human senses play a big role in the normality of life.

For some, the reality is not recognizable in the immediate surrounding experience. The actions which fuel the standard “normal” lives have no meaning and no attraction for them. They are commonly looked at and labeled as retarded, unadapted, antisocial creatures. But for some of them, the reality makes sense differently, taking various shapes: of numbers, of drawings, of music. For the calendar-readers twins, who seem to have mathematical algorithms natively imprinted in their brains, numbers are regarded as friends. Numbers are full of life, have distinct characters, are personified. For the musical encyclopedic retarded, music is the only thing that gives him coherent self-expression. For the autist artist, drawing is an act of communion with the outside world. 

Oliver Sacks takes each case and integrates it into normality. A normality that has no standardized forms, no prejudices, no concrete rules. A normality that expands to boundaries we might have never thought of.

The book is a good read for those who want to step inside the entangled and complex world of the brain, for those who want to step closer to the realization of what makes us humans. It is a book that opens new realities before us and makes us aware of how perfect functionally our brains can be.

  

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L'elegance du Herisson - Muriel Barbery

Incerc sa realizez ce anume m-a fermecat si m-a prins iremediabil la aceasta eleganta aricioasa. Cred ca in primul rand este vorba de stil. Mai mult decat ceea ce doreste sa transmita, mai mult decat teserea atat de formidabila a persoajelor, este stilul. Si este un astfel de stil pe care nu l-am putea descrie mai bine decat prin rezumatul propriu autoarei, este un stil imbibat de eleganta ariciului. Un stil direct, franc, fara menajamente, plin de amuzament si un adanc spirit critic, prin care se tes idei originale si sensibile.

Cred ca cel mai bine as putea descrie Eleganta ariciului ca o fabula filozofica. Lumea vazuta si analizata din prisma a doua personaje care traiesc in acelasi timp doua realitati aparent complet diferite - realitatea statutului social, realitatea varstei - si totusi aceeasi realitate - realitatea insingurarii datorata incompatibilitatii cu contextele la care au fost destinate. Una dintre personaje, o fetita supradotata varstei ei, se confrunta cu convingerea inutilitatii existentei si pleaca intr-o calatorie filozofica proprie prin care incearca sa isi confirme aceasta redundanta existentiala. Personajul numarul doi, o femeie in varsta si o portareasa isi creaza un sistem de autoaparare si se straduieste sa se conformeze imaginii standard de "simpla portareasa si nimic mai mult" cu care sunt cu totii obisnuiti, fara sa deranjeze in vreun fel obisnuinta si imaginatia celor din clasa superioara carora le serveste. Refugiul celor doua personaje in contemplarea frumosului, a vietii si a artei le aduce consolare. Intalnirea dintre ele rezulta intr-o culminare a confruntarilor lor: un schimb de macaz asupra perceptiei valorii vietii si o infruntare a trecutului si a temeriilor pe care acesta le-a sapat adanc.

Recomand cu toata caldura aceasta carte pentru toti cei care sunt gata pentru un ingenios melanj de interpretare psihologica, umor, cugetare filozofica, sensibilitate.

"Cei care, ca mine, sunt inspirati de maretia lucrurilor marunte, o urmaresc (frumusetea) pana in miezul neesentialului, acolo unde imbracata in hainele de fiecare zi, tasneste dintr-o anumita randuiala a lucrurilor obisnuite si din certitudinea ca este asa cum trebuie sa fie, din convingerea ca asa este bine."

"Gandindu-ma astfel, in seara aceasta, cu inima si stomacul zdrobite, imi spun ca, in cele din urma, poate ca asta e viata: multa disperare, dar si cateva momente de frumusete in care timpul nu mai este acelasi. E ca si cum notele muzicale ar face un fel de paranteze in timp, o suspensie, un altundeva chiar aici, un intotdeauna in niciodata. Da, asta e, un intotdeauna in nicioadata.."

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Exodus - by Leon Uris

For all those who flirt with history but find it a little hard to digest it from history books, there are the semi fictional historical books. In other words you get an infusion of history while you still feel the blueprint of the author who inserts through the lines episodes of trivial suspense. This is also the case of Exodus - by Leon Uris, in my opinion a book that is definitely worth reading for a series of reasons. In an uniquely precise manner it presents the evolution of the second world war, giving an overall perspective of the socio-political context and of the germing conflicts that stood at the root of its outburst. Even though it narrates the different stories of a series of fictive characters, the author manages to avoid chopping up the historical value of the book. The historic events are not presented liniarily but more intermingled, which boosts the suspense but at the same time still keeps a clear and logical pattern which enables the reader to mentally visualize the sequence of events.

The book tells the story of decades of persecution that were held against the Jewish communities in different parts of the world a long time before the outburst of the war. It locates dramas that took place in tsar-ruled Russia, Poland and the western Europe over years and Jewish migrations from one place to another in an seemingly futile struggle to find their place and their identity. It depicts the shocking climax of the jewish massacres with the rise of the fascist rule in Germany during the Second World War, the methods of extermination and the reactions of different nations to the nazi plans. The storyline goes on with the return of the Jews in the promised land, the several waves of Aliyah Beth and their strive in building up again a national identity through the redemption of land under the turkish rule and then under arab hostility. One of the most gripping parts of the book is the episode of land redemption and the establishing of the first settlements which take the form of kibutz and moshad. The rigidity of life, the unshaken determination and inhuman drill in reviving the barren lands and transforming them into blossoming, luxurious fields give the Jews little by little the right to regain their pride and autonomy. The repatriation scene reveals episodes of conflicts between arabs and new comers in the land and diplomatic international efforts or guerilla based wars sustained for attaining the ultimate scope - the reborn of the Jewish state. 

One thing though that I disliked in the author's approach is his lack of neutrality. There are passages that obviously reveal a taking side of the jews and a critical approach of the arab world, although there are fragments that tend to equilibrate the tone and to instill neutrality. There are evident writing strategies that diminish jewish flaws and magnifies arab lack of strategy, overdraws arab corruption and a sense of degradation (equally at a moral and a common sense level).

For all those who do not have the time to read the book but are interested in facts about the prolonged Jew Hating History, I wrote a few episodes that I consider relevant to it. You can find them in my Historical Pages.

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