|
that is, huge payments to the global corporate predators' loan sharks--as contributing to South America. Next we'll hear Bush touting his trillion dollar no-bid contract war as a contribution to the Iraqi people, a half a million of whom he has slaughtered. They should be grateful. If he'd contributed any more (of our tax dollars) they could have doubled that kill ratio per dollar.
(Paragraph 8, above--Clay Lowery of the Bushite Treasury Dept.--a Dept. that has been lying to us and stealing us blind for six and a half years.)
The World Bank operates in a similar manner. It provides big loans to poor countries, on very bad terms; the rich elite then rips off the money, leaving the poor to pay the debt. The bad terms then kick in. Cut all social programs. Let your people starve, go homeless, and go uneducated. Let the old die in their own excrement. Let children die of hunger, disease and exposure. Oh, and also, open your country up to sweatshops to provide cheap, unprotected labor for global corporate predators, and let us take your oil, gas, minerals, forests, fresh water and anything else you've got, at no benefit to you, and with no environmental protections. It's easy. Now you can can pay your debt.
The World Bank turned Argentina into a basket case. Economic and social ruin. Until the Argentines rebelled. A coalition of poor and middle class groups went round with tiny hammers and broke every ATV display window in Buenos Aires, in protest at World Bank/IMF policy. Three governments later--in quick succession--they finally got a good leftist government (that of Nestor Kirchner) who promised to get them out of the World Bank debt and never get into it again. He negotiated loans with Venezuela, on easier terms--and, critically, on terms that promote rather than destroy social justice programs--and Kirchner paid off Argentina's debt. All indicators are now up. Argentina is recovering well. Venezuela thus helped to create a healthy trading partner for itself, Brazil and other countries.
This was the seed of the Bank of the South--which now includes Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay (and possibly some others)--the goal being to keep the loans and the interest local and the terms local, to build rather than destroy local economies, and to elbow the World Bank/IMF--which benefits only first world financiers--out of the region (which they are doing).
When the U.S. pays off World Bank debts--or provides any other aid--the strings are horrendous. Not only "free trade" and sweatshops, and natural resource ripoffs, and other fascist/corporate policy, but also U.S. military aid to local rightwing military/police forces and U.S. military bases for the murderous and highly corrupt U.S. "war on drugs" (war on union leaders, peasant farmers and political leftists), and God knows what else (war with China--nefarious planning for an Asia-Pacific war?).
You can just imagine the corruption that Bush largesse (with our money) would bring to the already corrupt governments of Colombia and Peru, for instance, who are playing Bushite/corporate predator games. In Colombia-- the recipient of billions and billions in U.S./Bush military aid--recent investigations (by very courageous prosecutors and judges) have uncovered very close ties between the Uribe government (Bush's pals) with the rightwing paramilitary death squads that have been chainsawing union leaders and throwing their body parts into mass graves, and other atrocities. The ties involve the HEAD of the Colombian military, the former intelligence chief, and many Uribe office holders including relatives. The Colombian government stinks to high heaven, and THAT is who is getting our money. And Alan Garcia in Peru is not much better. He, too, is getting boffo "war on drugs" bucks, in exchange for his country being raped by "free trade."
In Venezuela, our tax money is going through USAID/NED programs to the OPPOSITION political party, for, among other things, a violent military coup attempt, a crippling oil professionals' strike, an absurd and wasteful recall election (which Chavez won hands down), and many other efforts to destabilize the country and overthrow its legitimate government. The rich rightwing elite in Venezuela is small, controls all the broadcast media (except RCTV--ha, ha, ha!), and its members appear to have no qualms whatever about selling their country out to the Bush Junta. THAT is who is getting U.S. "aid" to Venezuela. (The opposition leader in the last election publicly disavowed the latest plot against Chavez, hatched in Colombia, to be sprung the day after the December election, last year. So SOME in the rightwing may not be as bad as others, although it's possible he only disavowed the plot because of its exposure by Colombian investigators.)
Bushite "aid" to Brazil has the string attached of massive corporate biofuel production in the Amazon rainforest--one of the world's bulwarks against global warming. Peasant farmers, environmentalists, human rights groups--anyone who knows anything about it, opposes it.
And so it goes, as the late Kurt Vonnegut once wrote.
Wherever our tax money goes through Bushite hands, look for injustice, corruption, murder, drug trafficking, support of fascist elites against democracy, and really bad economic ideas.
And we should be careful when we say--or when we read corporate news monopolies like AP say--that "Chavez" is giving aid to other countries. Venezuela is a democracy--one of the best in western hemisphere. One of its hallmarks is grass roots participation--a goal that has been formalized by the government in community councils with real political power and other institutions. Chavez has furthermore attracted highly intelligent people to his government. Discussions are on-going at all levels about everything. Venezuela also has an elected National Assembly, and a rugged Constitution which has survived one attempt by the rightwing to rip it up. The desire to promote social justice and the new paradigm--South American self-determination--in neighboring countries is shared by most Venezuelans, who understand the need to transform the region, not just their own country. The name "Bolivarian" is from Simon Bolivar, the revolutionary hero who freed South America from colonial European rule, and dreamt of a "United States of South America." Now more than ever, South Americans need to acquire strength by banding together in cooperative projects--which is happening on many fronts, from bridges to pipelines to the Bank of the South.
So it is not "Chavez" who is giving money to others; it is the Venezuelan people who are doing so, through democratic discussion and decision-making, and for pragmatic as well as idealistic reasons. It creates good trading partners. It "lifts all boats."
Be careful of the Associated Press. They have been very, very, VERY bad on Chavez, Venezuela and the South American left. They try to make everything personal to Chavez, mostly for the purpose of demonizing him and blinding their readers (us) to this remarkable democracy movement that is sweeping South America. (They don't want us to get any ideas.) Always look for the tiny, obscure "ap" toward the end of the url. It may say reuters at the head of the url line, but it's really an AP article. Look for hidden (or not so hidden) corporate agendas. Read between the lines. Don't trust their framing. Question their facts.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
