EXPOSING GLOBAL ‘DEVELOPMENT’ RACKET

 FAISAL HASHMI

 If we delve deep, we find that most of the loot and corruption is done in the garb of development. This sort of corruption is much greater than that in arms deals. Both Indians as well as people of other countries are involved in this malpractice with the only difference that others’ corruption can easily be seen in arms deals while Indians are more exposed in cases of corruption in development projects than others are. 

John Perkins’s Confessions of an Economic Hit Man causes sensation by exposing development mafia spread across the world. There is great substance in Perkins’s work. This is why it is well received. Perkins has been an Economic Hit Man for several decades. In this autobiographical work, he has made a full confession.

 The writer, a US citizen, has been one of the few executives who get exorbitantly high salaries. His job entailed convincing nations in favour of development, giving them false expectations of prosperity and siphoning off millions of dollars from such a country to America on the pretext of development projects.

 Perkins reveals that most of the underdeveloped and developing countries are brainwashed about the need of starting specific development projects and then provided with loans through the World Bank. All the hopes and dreams of these countries are shattered after a while. They are never in a position to pay even the annual installment of interest, what to talk of the principal amount. In fact their annual income is too meagre to enable them to pay their interests.

 Now, these beleaguered countries are exploited to the hilt. They are browbeaten into allowing American military bases on their territory. Obviously, they have no option but to give in. In more than 125 countries America has its military bases having its armies, warships, arms and ammunition. This enables America to control the world in an efficient way. Perkins says this system is no less unjust than erstwhile empires. He asserts that rage against the injustices of this system caused September 11.

 First of all, an Economic Hit Man selects a milch cow in the form of a country. He prepares a grand survey and a fictitious report about its economic capabilities, which are later propagated through big newspapers. If a country dares to disagree with what the Economic Hit Man has to say, it is destabilised with the help of its political parties, activists, media persons and intellectuals. Governments are toppled, elections are rigged, politicians and officers are heavily bribed, people are taken on foreign trips, and their children are sent to study and are given jobs abroad. And people who resist are murdered. 

These countries are coerced into voting for America in the UN. Perkins holds that these tactics are not new for empires, but today they have become terrible and deadly. Once ensnared, there is no way out for these countries. As a result, they are always on the side of America on all international issues. And, some way or the other, they are compelled to provide their natural resources for American consumption.

 Perkins discloses that when a loan is sanctioned by the World Bank, it first reaches US companies and banks instead of the country which has got it issued. This is so because there is a deal with the country that it has to spend the money on building "infrastructure" ­" long roads, bridges, machines, buildings, communications, offices, etc. American companies like Bechtel, Halliburton, Chevron Texaco Corp win all the tenders for "infrastructure" building. There are a number of companies which actually are local branches of US companies. In some local companies, they have a big financial stake. Each of them partake of their share of the pie. 

If it goes the way it’s going, the author warns, it would be stoking rage against these US companies and creating political upheavals. Moreover, it might cause events like September 11. He says the book is written only in the interest of America. g

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