From The Ramparts

The New Imperialist/Colonial Paradigm

The New Imperialist/Colonial Paradigm

“Indeed, the global economy is new, but less so in form than in scale: the new global rules by which it now operates; the technologically enhanced speedup of global development and commerce that it facilitates; and the abrupt shift in global political power that it introduces. Surely it is also new that the world's democratic countries voted to suppress their own democratically enacted laws in order to conform to the rules of the new central global bureaucracy. Also new is the elimination of most regulatory control over global corporate activity and the liberation of currency from national controls, which lead in turn to the casino economy, ruled by currency speculators.
But the deep ideological principles underlying the global economy are not so new: they are the very principles that have brought us to the social, economic and environmental impasse we are in. They include the primacy of economic growth; the need for free trade to stimulate the growth; the unrestricted "free market"; the absence of government regulation; and voracious consumerism combined with an aggressive advocacy of a uniform worldwide development model that faithfully reflects the Western corporate vision and serves corporate interests. The principles also include the idea that all countries - even those whose cultures have been as diverse as, say, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Sweden and Brazil - must sign on to the same global economic model and row their (rising) boats in unison. The net result is monoculture - the global homogenization of culture, lifestyle, and level of technological immersion, with the corresponding dismantling of local traditions and economies. Soon, everyplace will look and feel like everyplace else, with the same restaurants and hotels, the same clothes, the same malls and superstores, and the same streets crowded with cars. There'll be scarcely a reason ever to leave home. Globalization of the economy is a new kind of corporate colonialism, visited upon poor countries and the poor in rich countries.” Corporate Colonialism by Vandana Shiva http://theunjustmedia.com/Corporation/corporate%20colonialism.htm

We are witnessing and experiencing a two tiered model of modern imperialist colonialism also known as globalization and the New World Order. This model is not that different from the original European imperialist mercantilism sparked by fledgling capitalists, the trading companies and partnerships that launched the rape, pillage and plunder of the world by Europeans beginning in the fifteenth century. Just as their forefathers decimated the ecology and forced wholesale ecological devastation, human displacement, death and suffering via invasions, genocide, slavery and colonialism; modern transnational conglomerates will use globalization to accelerate that process to the detriment of both humanity and the global ecosystem. Politically and militarily they tout this under the rubric of The New World Order, economically they use the World Trade Organization, IMF, the Wold Bank and the resulting “trade agreements” like NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT they impose to manipulate the what’s left of sovereign countries’ economic infrastructures, expropriate their natural resources and take advantage of their human resources. “Recall that our contemporary global corporations are direct descendants of the British East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company. The institutional form of the publicly traded, limited liability corporation was created to make possible the nearly unlimited aggregation of economic power under a centralized command authority for the purpose of colonizing and extracting the wealth of others without regard to human or natural consequences. Today, corporations, which command more economic resources than most states, are using their power to claim ownership rights to yet more of the productive assets of society and planet, including water, soils, air, knowledge, genetic material, communications. Here is where we see the link between corporate globalization and the commons. Corporations are pushing hard to establish property rights over ever more of the commons for their own exclusive ends, often claiming the right to pollute or destroy the regenerative systems of the Earth for quick gain, shrinking the resource base available for ordinary people to use in their pursuit of livelihoods, and limiting the prospects of future generations. The system is brilliantly designed to strip away any human sensibility from decisions that have profound human consequences. Even if the top manager of a corporation has a deep social and environmental commitment, he (it’s usually a “he”) is legally bound to act on this commitment only to the extent that it is consistent with maximizing returns to shareholders.” David C. Korten http://theunjustmedia.com/Corporation/What%20to%20Do%20When%20Corporations%20Rule%20the%20World.htm
The Multinational Corporation are not acting in a vacuum. Like their trading company prototypes who had the backing of the Church and monarchies; modern Multinational Corporations have the economic might of the IMF, World Bank and USAID (see Confessions of An Economic Hit Man by John Perkins) and mainly the Anglo-AmeriKKKan military and covert forces to help implement their global agenda of expropriation, exploitation and rapine. Not to be left out, the former colonial powers of France and Belgium are also in the mix big time. “More specifically, global financial markets and global corporations are programmed to destroy life — the lives of working people, the life of community, and the living wealth of the planet — to make money for the already wealthy. And they do it with extraordinary efficiency.” ibid “During the 1980s, most Latin American countries adopted a neoliberal package of reforms aimed at economic growth. These included opening up their markets to increased imports, privatization of social services, selling off key natural resource industries, deregulating their financial sectors, and using exports, rather than production for local consumption, as the main engine for economic growth. The results have been disastrous: two decades of economic near-stagnation. Rising unemployment, devastating economic crises, increased poverty, and the erosion of access to social rights including education and health care have marked the decade operating under the 'free trade' system. Many Latin American countries had taken out huge loans from the World Bank during the previous decades of dictatorships and wars, the benefits of which had never reached the poor majority. But throughout the 90s, most Latin American countries paid the International Monetary Fund more money in interest on those loans -- leaving themselves with larger debt than they started -- than they received in loans. IMF-inflicted structural adjustment policies have left citizens of many countries with less social safety net, less access to health care, and more in debt than ever before. Currency crises, precipitated by the casino economy of deregulated financial sectors, devastated the economies of Mexico in 1994, Brazil in 1999, and Argentina and Uruguay in 2000-2002, to name a few. Latin Americans had lost control over their economies, and had very little to show in return. Public sentiment grew weary of Washington's broken record of the hollow economic promises of ‘free trade.’” Deborah James http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/ftaa/3070.html.pf
The New World Order is as Del Jones says, merely a reconfiguration of the old European imperialist model by a new generation of elites designed to prevent the devastating internecine wars amongst the European colonial powers ala WWI and WWII. If there are going to be wars let the victims be people of color as in Viet Nam, Africa, East Timor, Latin America, Iraq and Iran ( NATO’s ruthless war against the Balkans notwithstanding). Globalization is part of the New World Order. It is an expansion of the 1500-1960 model of European colonialism and the 1960-present NeoColonial paradigm where trading companies and their corporatist descendants in collusion with the government and social institutions (religion, “education” and the media) set out to subjugate and plunder the globe. The one big difference will be instead of raising the standard of living of the colonial powers (in this case the Multinational Corporations) the standard of living will decrease because much of the wealth, job opportunities and support services are being outsourced to “developing countries”, leaving gaping holes and gaps in the economy, wages and standard of living between the rich and poor in the US and causing massive disruption and often increasing displacement in the “developing Countries”. “The only reason America is interested in Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Central America is oil, military land bases and other resources. However, most Americans have blindly incorporated the propaganda delivered into their homes. An objective analysis of media requires an understanding of the agenda it serves and role it plays. A small elitist group of exploiters manipulate mass opinion, in their best interest. America’s political and social system is based on capitalism. Under capitalism the resources and means for production and distribution are privately or corporately owned. Corporations elect and control government officials and governments. Twenty-three multinational corporations own over 80 percent of mass media. Their role is to influence the masses and create the perception of consent.” Harry Davidson, Ph.D. The Psychological Impact of Media Propaganda http://theunjustmedia.com/Media/Articles%20On%20media/The%20psychological%20impact%20of%20media%20propaganda.htm The mind control apparatus keeps us distracted, focused on inane and superficial manufactured issues, events and mind-numbing entertainment.
The young people took the lead in opposing the World Trade Organization when it met in Seattle several years ago. Now more and more AmeriKKKans are waking up to the reality 9-11 was an inside job, they are anxious and unnerved about the direction this country is headed. Unfortunately too many are caught up in the osterich syndrome, putting their heads inthe proverbial sand pretending not to know what is going on! Far too many still believe their elected officials have the country’s best interests at heart despite growing dissatisfaction with what is going on. Daily reports of new scandals, graft, corruption and malfeasance, have not reached critical mass where the populous says, “enough is enough”. Until that happens, it will be business as usual. Joe and Jane Sixpack, Jose and Rosita Workhard, Booboo and Shanaynay will slide deeper and deeper into an increasingly global fascist police state slavery system.

-30-

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 11:06 AM