I'm reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" - this book answers a lot of questions

[Taverner]

A lot of questions I had at the end of my 3 year Peace Corps stint

Why did the NSA and CIA take such an interest in us?

They fought very hard to give us access to 'JUSMEG', which was an American bar on US Embassy property. Usually only military and government officials were allowed there, but since the late 80's, we PCVs were allowed, and in fact encouraged to stop over there for a beer and a dip in the pool.

People would always strike up conversations with us there, folks who just "worked for the Embassy."

A lot of shit I saw in Thailand was a problem - crazy as this might sound, a lot of disinformation was disseminated via "Voice of America," but not on the Standard English show, but the Simple English show. The one for non-native English speakers. One very specific report on that show said 'One in Every Four people in the World has HIV.'

As an HIV Prevention Specialist, I knew this was not true. 25% of the world having HIV - as high as it got around the world, 10% of the population was the biggest it ever got to.

I now know why this was said as well as many other things. After reading John Perkins' book (he was also a PCV in Ecuador) it all comes into play.

Thailand was going to be the guinea pig for HIV vaccines. Vaccines that would kill some, infect others with Hep C, and all of this without their knowledge.


Call me crazy, but this happened. I know it now.

[arcane1]

1. While I've never read the book

there was a movie by the same name, as well as a few videos of speeches/lectures he gave, all of which were quite good. In concert with "The Shock Doctrine", eyes are opened that can never again be closed.

[northoftheborder]

2. I read that book, and it really opened my eyes to lots of.....

.....things I didn't about how the real world works. It sets the scene for "Shock Doctrine". I passed it on to a reformed Republican!

[sasha031]

3. it been awhile since I read that book, can't recommend it enough

it will defiantly change the way you view the world, nothing is what it seems.

John tweets if your interested.
John Perkins
@economic_hitman
http://twitter.com/#!/economic_hitman

[snagglepuss]

4. K & R nt

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. It's a real eye opener. I read it when it was first published.

I've never looked at our government the same again. :(

[elleng]

6. Learned a huge amount from that book,

permanently changed my perspective. Will think about your experience along with it now. Thanks

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. The big revelation for me from Perkins was that most foreign aid never

leaves the U.S. economy.

It's paid to major corporations who then do the work in the target country. The local people never see a penny.

A friend of my parents was a missionary in Liberia, and he was disgusted with U.S. foreign aid in that country in the 1950s. He said that the U.S. companies would ship over a bunch of equipment, for example road building equipment, but not train anyone how to use or repair it. Then it would sit rusting in the hot, humid air.

In the meantime, Liberia had a massive unemployment rate, countless young men just standing around on street corners in Monrovia. The prevailing wage at the time was 10 cents an hour, and this missionary said that the same money used to buy useless machinery could have hired all those men to build a nationwide network of gravel roads by hand, which would have REALLY helped the Liberian economy (and in retrospect, might have prevented the growth of the guerrilla forces that later wreaked havoc on the country).