The $500 billion fire sale
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1125050,00.html
In a shattered postwar Iraq, there are rich pickings to be had - and
for US businesses at least, it promises to be a risk-free bonanza.
Naomi Klein joins those at a trade show jostling for a stake
Saturday January 17, 2004
The Guardian
It's 8.40am, and the Sheraton Hotel ballroom thunders with the sound
of plastic explosives pounding against metal. No, this is not the
Sheraton in Baghdad, it's the one in Arlington, Virginia. And it's not
a real terrorist attack, it's a hypothetical one. The screen at the
front of the room is playing an advertisement for "bomb-resistant
waste receptacles" - this trash can is so strong, we're told, it can
contain a C4 blast. And its manufacturer is convinced that, given half
a chance, these babies would sell like hot cakes in Baghdad - at bus
stations, army barracks and, yes, upscale hotels. Available in Hunter
Green, Fortuneberry Purple and Windswept Copper.
Naomi Klein
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=18510aff.0310130208.2e6e3ce6%40posting.google.com
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