Religions > Atheism > Tsunami Aid : US corporations will become Rich, Indians Beware
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Barney Lyon" |
| Date: |
07 Mar 2005 12:31:25 AM |
| Object: |
Tsunami Aid : US corporations will become Rich, Indians Beware |
3/4/2005 12:51:03 PM
John Perkins, whose tell-all book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
is a controversial New York Times best seller, and former Tucson
Electric Power Co. president Einar Greve say their past careers in
foreign aid operations warn of the possibility that American loans to
rebuild the devastated south Asia nations will bankrupt the countries
while making U.S. corporations richer.
"We're going to end up giving a lot of money, and my concern is that
the money will go toward things that will make American construction
companies very rich and will not help the people who are most in need,"
said Perkins. "We've got to make sure we don't use this terrible
tragedy as a way to line our own pockets. Foreign aid is very badly
needed right now, but what will we do later on? A lot of schools and
hospitals will no doubt be rebuilt, but it's no good unless there are
teachers and health workers to work in them.
According to Perkins, that's how the United States has traditionally
put developing nations over a barrel and made them beholden to U.S.
interests.
From 1971 until 1981, Perkins worked for the international consulting
firm Charles T. Main, where he said his job was to make grossly
inflated forecasts for how U.S.-funded engineering and construction
projects would boost the economies of underdeveloped nations.
Working with greedy and often despotic leaders, Perkins would persuade
nations to accept enormous loans from U.S. banks, including the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund, knowing the debt would
cripple their economies, he said.
American contractors, including Halliburton and Bechtel, both involved
in the reconstruction of Iraq, would receive the contracts, keeping
most of the money in the United States, he said.
When recipients couldn't repay the loans, they would surrender such
assets as oil and mineral rights, and the United States would take
control of their economies, said Perkins, who worked in Ecuador,
Panama, Iran and other places.
"I think this empire we've created is every bit the equivalent of the
British Empire we fought more than 200 years ago if you are living in
Ecuador or places like that," said Perkins, who lives in Florida and
now runs a nonprofit company that he said works to protect nations he
once exploited.
The man who hired Perkins at Charles T. Main - former TEP executive
Greve - said his story is accurate.
"I would say that, allowing for some author discretion, basically his
story is true," Greve said during a phone interview from his Santa
Barbara, Calif., home. "What John's book says is, there was a
conspiracy to put all these countries on the hook, and that happened.
Whether or not it was some sinister plot or not is up to
interpretation, but many of these countries are still over the barrel
and have never been able to repay the loans."
Greve, who resigned as president of TEP in 1989 amid an insider
stock-trading scandal, said he knew of many projects foisted upon
developing nations in the name of foreign aid that were pure
"boondoggles."
"I knew of projects that were financed by USAID and World Bank that
should never have been built," he said. "There was nobody who believed
some of these projects would help their economies, but the receiving
countries just wanted money to build something. If it turned out to be
a lemon, it really didn't deter them."
Binns, who was appointed as ambassador to Honduras by President Carter
before Ronald Reagan replaced him with John Negroponte in 1981,
disputed the allegations that foreign aid is routinely used to bankrupt
struggling nations.
"I can say that his depiction of things is wildly exaggerated, at least
in my experience," Binns said. "Some infrastructure projects in some
countries have not produced the desired benefit, and I think the
American taxpayers ought to look at all U.S. programs with skepticism
and scrutiny, but I think he's all wet."
Perkins said he began working on his book two decades ago but succumbed
to bribes and coercion to not reveal what he'd done for a living.
After the 9/11 attacks on America and the war in Iraq, he finished the
project as a way to explain why both happened.
The attacks, he said, were the result of hatred the United States has
fostered with its foreign policy. Iraq was invaded, and Saddam Hussein
ousted because he refused to comply with U.S. wishes, as the Saudi
Arabian royal family had three decades ago.
"The problem is that most people don't know what's going on. They think
foreign aid is always altruistic," he said. "When Americans really
understand what's going on in the world and what our tax dollars are
for, they'll demand change, and they'll get change."
----------------
After reading the article, I (Steve Piersanti ) asked John Perkins to
clarify a few questions. His responses help us all better understand
how "foreign aid" works:
Question: How much of the economic development that you discuss in
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man was called "foreign aid"?
John: We referred to most all of it that way, not sure if there is
some legal definition.
Question: Are the loans from the World Bank and other international
development institutions considered foreign aid?
John: Yes, per the above.
Question: How much of the foreign aid is loans, and how much is grants
that don't have to be repaid?
John: Very few grants in my day. They were sometimes given to fund
pr-feasibility studies that allowed us to go in and decide whether a
country was really worth our efforts. After that, mostly loans,
ncluding the feasibility studies and actual project development. Joe
Stiglitz, former World Bank senior vp and chief economist, now
professor at Columbia, raised a lot of eyebrows when he wrote about the
harmfulness of loans. Ken Rogoff, former IMF Chief Economist and now at
Harvard, attacked Stiglitz but when on Hazel Henderson's TV show with
me admitted that he now believes loans are not a good policy. I was
shocked -- and believe Hazel was too -- because he would not dispute my
allegations.
Also, independent of John's responses to my questions, I asked the same
questions to another expert who also confirmed these practices.
I would be interested to know your thoughts about foreign aid practices
and welcome you sharing other specific examples.
Steve
________________________
Steve Piersanti
President and Publisher
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
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http://globaldialoguecenter.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=60
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| User: "Jez" |
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| Title: Re: Tsunami Aid : US corporations will become Rich, Indians Beware |
07 Mar 2005 04:05:06 AM |
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Barney Lyon wrote:
3/4/2005 12:51:03 PM
John Perkins, whose tell-all book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
Perkins interview.......
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207
--
Jez
'Realism is seductive because once you have accepted the reasonable
notion that you should base your actions on reality, you are too often
led to accept, without much questioning, someone else's version of what
that reality is. It is a crucial act of independent thinking to be
skeptical of someone else's description of reality.'-
Howard Zinn
NFS Underground2, Americas Army And MOH-PA
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