Rob Kall: Do you think it's possible that to have a globalization that is not, as it currently is, designed primarily for multi-national corporations?
Lawrence Wilkerson:
Well, I'm sure you know, that's partly at least the way it's designed right now. Whether it's Exxon Mobil, or it's Monsanto, or one of the big drug companies, or whatever. The way we structured the global financial system is designed to favor large corporations which are less and less sovereign in their nature. That is to say Rex Tillerson when he goes, CEO of Exxon Mobil, when he goes to Kazakhstan and says he'd rather be in Kazakhstan then the United States, he's telling the truth. Kazakhstan's a terrible place. It's an authoritarian, "you're tortured tomorrow morning" country. But he'd rather be there because it treats its energy companies better. It treats its energy assets, resources better. It gives better pay on the dollar and so forth. So Tillerson has no nationality. He is an oil man, and that's something that we have to deal with. We can't give these multi-national corporations like Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, Central, you know-- raping places in South America to grow more soybeans and so forth. We can't give them that kind of power. We either have to give the local governments the power to rein them in, and to override WTO or other rulings that might be blessing this, or we have to do it ourselves. And I think it's probably going to wind up being a combination of the two as it's been in the past, but not been that successful.
Rob Kall: Alright. I lied. One last question! What's your take on how different things will be, whether Obama holds or Bishop Romney wins the Presidency?
Lawrence Wilkerson:
I don't know Romney at all. I know President Obama from four years of experience with him. I'm disappointed! I'm disappointed he didn't close Guantanamo. I'm elated that he said "we don't torture!" I'm disappointed that he made a deal with the banks rather than essentially telling them "to put up or shut up." I would have loved to have seen him nationalize a couple of them. I'm disappointed that he didn't do more things to make America's role in the world a little more positive.
For example, shutting down the drone strikes. We've struck 348 times, I understand, with over four thousand casualties, half of them probably not even enemy. People in Pakistan, for example, won't even go to a funeral or a wedding now. They're too afraid of collecting and being killed by drones. This is not a good policy, "policy by assassination." People are going to start doing it to us. And when they do that I'm going to watch carefully to see how we react, when a drone's flying over Manhattan or flying over Times Square, and we are affected the same way Pakistan is being affected right now. Then Americans will suddenly understand what I'm talking about! And believe me, there are other people in the world that have drones. All of that said, I think that President Obama's record shows that he will be a more positive influence on all the things you and I have been talking about that should happen, than what I have seen from Mitt Romney would indicate he would be.
And second, about Mitt Romney, I am most discouraged to have seen how he shifted from the primary language to the actual campaign language, and almost completely reversed himself on almost every major issue. I don't know where his backbone is! I don't know where his spine is! I don't know where his brain is! And I'm not willing to run the risk of finding out, and not liking it.
Rob Kall: Hm! Okay. This is the Rob Kall Bottom-Up Radio Show.
We've been talking to Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Now he's an adjunct Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary.
The show's sponsored by OpEdNews.com. If you came in late in the show, you can go into iTunes, look for my name Rob Kall K-A-L-L, to download the interview and lots more.
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