One of the best written and engrossing TV dramas of the last decade would have to be “The Sopranos”. It's based on a familiar theme... organized crime families and the Mob. In a typical episode, we would see Tony's henchmen go and “protect” a local shop keeper, help a hooker by financing their drug addiction, call in an overdue invoice with some “persuasion” or a “whacking”. A premium is placed on “loyalty” and disloyalty is not a good career move.
We know how it works. Innocent people find themselves through misadventure or foolishness indebted to the mob and they find themselves caught in a cycle of paying back insurmountable debts and in effect become serfs in a feudal system to a lord. It's a tried and tested method of enslaving your fellow man. That's how it happens on the micro scale. So what's stops this methodology working on a global scale? The short answer is nothing. The cold hard reality is that whole nations are systematically and deliberately manipulated into bondage and servitude to the west. It's done in such a subtle way that the means is not immediately apparent, but the effect is devastating to the population of the victim country. How is it done?
In “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”(EHM), John Perkins retells his experience as an EHM. Selected and groomed by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a young man, Perkins ends up working for a major US engineering company. His job description was to go into 3rd world countries, convince them of their need to have modern electricity infrastructure, exaggerate growth forecasts and organise huge loans and construction contracts with US companies. The aim was not to help raise living standards for the poor, but rather, to ensure that an insurmountable debt burden gets placed on the country so that the whole nation becomes enslaved to the US and the western world. Corrupt puppet leaders sell their nation into servitude with the help of inducements, and the people end up manufacturing Nike shoes for meagre wages to pay off the impossible debt. The enslaved nation is also put into a weak bargaining position so they are forced to cooperate with US political and military interests. The natural resources of the country are systematically "reposessed" and the profits sent back to the west. During his career, Perkins target countries included Indonesia, Ecuador and Panama.So we can see the whole process is no different to the Sopranos getting vulnerable girls hooked on smack and given a pole dancing job at the Bada Bing to pay off their debts. Why would we then afford any more respectability to western multinational companies and their governments than we would afford to Tony Soprano? At least Tony Soprano has some kind of conscience, even if he is in therapy. 
John Pilger, award winning Australian journalist, has produced "The New Rulers of the World" This is a compelling and concise video on the impact of the EHM agenda from the victim's perspective, particularly with reference to Indonesia. Essential viewing.
How can we, as people of conscience, take advantage of this situation and benefit from the produce of slavery? At least if we can be aware of what's going on in this world we may have half a chance of choosing the fair trade coffee & chocolate over the other brand that is cheaper due to exploitation. And what is the point of aid programs to the 3rd world if it's just going out the back door as payola to multi-national standover men? We need to get a little more sophisticated about the way we understand poverty, because the real agents of human misery had this worked out a long time ago. God bless John Perkins for the courage to stand up and speak out.
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