"two soccer balls, a referee's whistle and a stopwatch"

[welshTerrier2]

more and more DU'ers have read John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" ... for those who haven't, the basic deal is that mega-US-based multi-national corporations, working with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, essentially blackmail poor, developing nations into signing away their oil rights and their national resources to avoid defaulting on their loans ... the US steps in to "help out" countries willing to "cooperate" ... those who refuse end up defaulting on their IMF loans and suffer crippling economic hardship ...

this imperialism has, for more than 100 years, sat at the center of US foreign policy ... while some might see this as acting in the interests of the American people, it's NOT ... Americans are hated for these exploitationist policies and the only real beneficiaries are multi-national corporations and their largest stockholders ...

here's the latest example that's come to light:

source: http://www.alternet.org/story/30657/

<skip> Against that backdrop of rising tension, these previously unpublished contracts, including classified agreements between the Ecuadorian military and 16 oil companies, are changing the debate. The bulk of the documents, obtained by Beltran and verified by this reporter in November, offer what experts say is an extremely rare and detailed look at how cut-throat capitalism and an oil-guided militarization of the Ecuadorian Amazon are digging deep rifts through the country.

Sealing the deal with a fingerprint

"This one is one of the worst," Beltran says, handing me an eight-page contract.

In 2001, Agip Oil Ecuador BV, a subsidiary of the multibillion dollar Italian petrochemical company Eni, convinced an association of Huarani Indians to sign over oil access to tribal lands and give up their future right to sue for environmental damage. In return Agip gave, among other things, modest allotments of medicine and food, a $3,500 school house, plates and cups, an Ecuadorian flag, two soccer balls and a referee's whistle.

http://www.alternet.org/images/managed/Story+Image_9span.jpg

Indicative of the vast gulf in cultures, two of the tribal representatives signed the document with fingerprints.

Other contracts, some marked classified, are signed by multinational oil companies and the Ecuadorian military. Activists and attorneys interviewed for this story say the documents prove the Ecuadorian army has become a private security force for oil companies, one obligated to patrol vast swaths of jungle lands while engaging, and spying on, Ecuadorian citizens opposed to oil operations. <skip>

[lapfog_1]

1. "You want some beads with that?"

I hear that NOLA will not be needing so many throws for the Mardi Gras this year... so we have some extras that will sweeten the deal for you.

(Good god, are we still such greedy bastards that we can take advantage of native peoples this way...)