WHAT IT TAKES TO GET IT IS WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP IT!

What it takes to get something is what it takes to keep it. That was a popular adage that I heard while growing up. This adage kind of explains why people that win the lottery and become millionaires fail to maintain that status and level of wealth overtime. On the other hand, those who earn a million dollars through know how and connections can perpetuate the existence of that wealth. In short, one needs to be able to continually reproduce the factor that led to the success in order to maintain the level of success, as a general rule.

When one looks at the West today, it is subject to the laws of nature just like any other entity in existence. What I mean by this is that any entities presence is the creation and summation of that entities past, with a slight mutation that makes it unique. The West, as we know it today, is the creation of European exploration, imperialism, conquest and colonization. In other words, much of the global West, was wealth and resources in the hands and control of non-Europeans peoples. Then, through the actions previously mentioned, transfer of control to European peoples resulted in a net gain for them and a net loss for those peoples whose lives and land had been usurped. In essence, the European peoples of the world lifted themselves up by putting non-Europeans down. This was carried about by European elites, but through discrimination and trickle down economics, manifested to the benefit of millions of white European people.

America used to be characterized, through most of its history, by egregious forms of internal exploitation. This exploitation, such as the near extermination of the natives, the breaking of treaties with natives, the enslavement of Africans and the placing of Africans under an Apartheid system, were very visible. This history is what created this present that the American people now enjoy, some (whites) more than others. However, laws were changed, civil rights were granted and unions protected workers rights, which preventing these forms of egregious exploitation domestically and the profit that went with it. Thus, what they (the white elite) did to “get it” had now been constrained by laws and human right gains. Hence, the elites needed to replace the benefits of domestic exploitation with the benefits of foreign exploitation.... via globalization and transnational corporations.

One thing that is obvious to note about the USA is that its constitution, laws and system of democracy only applies within our borders. The things that we herald as making America great are enforced by laws and are not the natural moral inclination and principles of America people. Outside the USA, anything goes and we (our government and corporations) do not treat others based upon the laws and principles that govern our treatment of one and other. A good example of that is our disrespect of the United Nations as a world democratic institution. Instead of working in conjunction and under the constraint of UN democratic decisions, the USA would rather act like a dictator in regards to world geopolitics. It does not want its objectives and interest bound by the democratic decisions of nations it shares the planet with.

Now, the USA and the West have become like the wind. The wind is a phenomenon that cannot be observed directly, but only through its reaction upon other things that we can observe, like a leaf moving. The USA and Western activity in third world countries is invisible to most people, but the impact and effect is deep and its purpose is exploitation. Given that our activities are most invisible, the effects of our activities are erroneously blamed upon what is visible…because that is all that we are allowed to see. Hence, the problems of developing nations nations are ubiquitously blamed on corruption and poor governance, because the West is constantly highlighting corruption and poor governance in these places. It is not that such (exploitation) does not exist. Rather, it is that it gets blamed as the primary cause of African poverty and lack of economic growth.

What they never shin light on are there activities in these nations that are taking place behind the scenes. I have been informed of a book entitled “Confessions of an Economic Hit man”, by John Perkins. It is introspection into his own role working in behalf of the World Band and transnational corporations based in the West and how they are responsible for keeping many third world peoples in poverty.

Here is an overview of the book:

For years, John Perkins confesses, he was a loan shark at the highest political and economic levels, personally persuading governments to pawn their natural resources and citizens’ labor in the interests of corporate global empire. Once these countries were saddled with debt, the American government and international monetary aid agencies allied with it were able to control the countries’ economies.
Written with an eye toward solutions and redemption, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is an insider’s expose of government and corporate policies that led to the impoverishment of millions of people across the planet. For the last ten years, Perkins has been countering those effects by working with indigenous peoples in the Amazon, and consulting through his non-profit Dream Change, Inc..

Taken from Democracy now interview:

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins joins us now in our firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!

JOHN PERKINS: Thank you, Amy. It’s great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Okay, explain this term, “economic hit man,” e.h.m., as you call it.

John Perkins: Basically what we were trained to do and what our job is to do is to build up the American empire. To bring -- to create situations where as many resources as possible flow into this country, to our corporations, and our government, and in fact we’ve been very successful. We’ve built the largest empire in the history of the world. It's been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It's only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort. This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.

This sounds like a good read for anyone who wants to see the wind as it truly blows.