So called free trade agreements perpetuate US and European multi-national corporations' virtually unfettered access to cheap labor and valuable raw materials. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund ensure powerful Western influence by deeply indebting impoverished nations. The debtors are then obliged to tailor their economic policies to benefit their Neoliberal masters, leaving a majority of their citizens miserably poor.
Utilizing direct and indirect military intervention, the Neocolonialists have long guaranteed the loyalty of their "subjects" by ousting leaders elected by the people and installing dictators friendly to Western interests.
Close call for the wealthy ruling elite
Consider one of many examples. With a long-standing tradition of constitutional rule and leaders elected by the vote of the people, Chileans made the "grave error" of electing Salvador Allende as their president in the early 1970's.
Allende suffered from the delusion that it would be just to nationalize industries and end years of multi-national corporate exploitation. In 1973, the zealous efforts of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, the CIA, and telecommunications giant ITT bore fruit. Their three year campaign to destabilize the social, political, and economic conditions of Chile softened the beach-head for a bloody coup, which included the assasination of Allende. General Augusto Pinochet, America's man, took the helm.
Pinochet "rescued" the people of Chile by abolishing the minimum wage, crushing labor unions, lowering taxes and privatizing the pension system. It came as no great surprise that American multi-nationals like ITT were able to continue their plunder.
2100 murders, 1100 disappearances, and 28,000 torture victims later, Pinochet resigned in 1990. Since his arrest and detention in 1998, Pinochet has been stripped of his immunity as former head of state and indicted for crimes against humanity. There is hope for justice.
One of the better articulations of the indirect yet powerful Neocolonial rule imposed by the United States and Western Europe comes from a speech Salvador Allende made before the United Nations (as the Nixon Regime was covertly wreaking social, political, and economic havoc under his very nose):
"Our economy could no longer tolerate the subordination implied by having more than eighty percent of its exports in the hands of a small group of large foreign companies that have always put their interests ahead of those of the countries where they make their profits""
"These same firms exploited Chilean copper for many years, made more than four billion dollars in profit in the last forty-two years alone, while their initial investments were less than thirty million"My country, Chile would have been totally transformed by that four billion dollars""
"We find ourselves opposed by forces that operate in the shadows, without a flag, with powerful weapons, from positions of great influence".We are potentially rich countries, yet we live in poverty. We go here and there, begging for credits and aid, yet we are great exporters of capital. It is a classic paradox of the capitalist economic system."
The coffee is brewing, can't you smell it?
Live in denial if you will, but we Caucasian descendents of Western imperialists living in Neocolonial nations owe a tremendous moral and fiscal debt to those whom our ancestors and governments have egregiously wronged. Our wealth and power insulates us to an extent, but those we have oppressed are beginning to extract their pound of flesh.
Significant numbers of "illegal" immigrants are evading detection and entering the United States. They are passing through the grossly immoral border our ancestors created after stealing the land comprising our nation from the Native Americans and from Mexico. Xenophobia, paranoia, and racism are again rearing their ugly heads as some White Americans clamor for the arrest and deportation of 11 million immigrants and the creation of an American version of the Iron Curtain.
Despite his assurances that he does not intend to militarize the Mexican border, George Bush's latest agenda for our southern boundary includes deploying 6,000 National Guard troops and adding prison beds for "illegal" immigrants. Not a whiff of militarization there.
Bush's discourse made it quite clear that despite the fact that he did not support mass deportation, the "illegals" who had established themselves in the United States would only be eligible for citizenship if they wrapped themselves in the American flag, steeped themselves in the lore of the Empire, and became fluent in English, the global language which is the key to self-actualizing and getting into heaven. Once the "illegals" reaching for the brass ring of American citizenship have sold their cultural souls, Bush wants to grace them with the opportunity to "get in line" behind those who won the lottery in their country of origin and obtained documents to enter the United States legally.
Utilizing direct and indirect military intervention, the Neocolonialists have long guaranteed the loyalty of their "subjects" by ousting leaders elected by the people and installing dictators friendly to Western interests.
Close call for the wealthy ruling elite
Consider one of many examples. With a long-standing tradition of constitutional rule and leaders elected by the vote of the people, Chileans made the "grave error" of electing Salvador Allende as their president in the early 1970's.
Pinochet "rescued" the people of Chile by abolishing the minimum wage, crushing labor unions, lowering taxes and privatizing the pension system. It came as no great surprise that American multi-nationals like ITT were able to continue their plunder.
2100 murders, 1100 disappearances, and 28,000 torture victims later, Pinochet resigned in 1990. Since his arrest and detention in 1998, Pinochet has been stripped of his immunity as former head of state and indicted for crimes against humanity. There is hope for justice.
One of the better articulations of the indirect yet powerful Neocolonial rule imposed by the United States and Western Europe comes from a speech Salvador Allende made before the United Nations (as the Nixon Regime was covertly wreaking social, political, and economic havoc under his very nose):
"Our economy could no longer tolerate the subordination implied by having more than eighty percent of its exports in the hands of a small group of large foreign companies that have always put their interests ahead of those of the countries where they make their profits""
"These same firms exploited Chilean copper for many years, made more than four billion dollars in profit in the last forty-two years alone, while their initial investments were less than thirty million"My country, Chile would have been totally transformed by that four billion dollars""
"We find ourselves opposed by forces that operate in the shadows, without a flag, with powerful weapons, from positions of great influence".We are potentially rich countries, yet we live in poverty. We go here and there, begging for credits and aid, yet we are great exporters of capital. It is a classic paradox of the capitalist economic system."
The coffee is brewing, can't you smell it?
Live in denial if you will, but we Caucasian descendents of Western imperialists living in Neocolonial nations owe a tremendous moral and fiscal debt to those whom our ancestors and governments have egregiously wronged. Our wealth and power insulates us to an extent, but those we have oppressed are beginning to extract their pound of flesh.
Significant numbers of "illegal" immigrants are evading detection and entering the United States. They are passing through the grossly immoral border our ancestors created after stealing the land comprising our nation from the Native Americans and from Mexico. Xenophobia, paranoia, and racism are again rearing their ugly heads as some White Americans clamor for the arrest and deportation of 11 million immigrants and the creation of an American version of the Iron Curtain.
Despite his assurances that he does not intend to militarize the Mexican border, George Bush's latest agenda for our southern boundary includes deploying 6,000 National Guard troops and adding prison beds for "illegal" immigrants. Not a whiff of militarization there.
Bush's discourse made it quite clear that despite the fact that he did not support mass deportation, the "illegals" who had established themselves in the United States would only be eligible for citizenship if they wrapped themselves in the American flag, steeped themselves in the lore of the Empire, and became fluent in English, the global language which is the key to self-actualizing and getting into heaven. Once the "illegals" reaching for the brass ring of American citizenship have sold their cultural souls, Bush wants to grace them with the opportunity to "get in line" behind those who won the lottery in their country of origin and obtained documents to enter the United States legally.
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