Arundhati Roy: How Corporate Power Converted Wealth Into Philanthropy for Social Control

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http://www.alternet.org/books/arundhati-roy-how-corporate-power-converted-wealth-philanthropy-social-control

What follows in this essay might appear to some to be a somewhat harsh critique. On the other hand, in the tradition of honoring one’s adversaries, it could be read as an acknowledgment of the vision, flexibility, sophistication, and unwavering determination of those who have dedicated their lives to keeping the world safe for capitalism.

Their enthralling history, which has faded from contemporary memory, began in the United States in the early twentieth century when, kitted out legally in the form of endowed foundations, corporate philanthropy began to replace missionary activity as Capitalism’s (and Imperialism’s) road-opening and systems maintenance patrol.

Among the first foundations to be set up in the United States were the Carnegie Corporation, endowed in 1911 by profits from Carnegie Steel Company, and the Rockefeller Foundation, endowed in 1914 by J. D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Company. The Tatas and Ambanis of their time.

Some of the institutions financed, given seed money, or supported by the Rockefeller Foundation are the United Nations, the CIA, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), New York’s most fabulous Museum of Modern Art, and, of course, the Rockefeller Center in New York (where Diego Riviera’s mural had to be blasted off the wall because it mischievously depicted reprobate capitalists and a valiant Lenin; Free Speech had taken the day off ).

[NuttyFluffers]

1. me gusta.

thanks.

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2. ...

[Baitball Blogger]

3. From corporate endowment foundations we are evolving into the next generation.

It doesn't raise my level of confidence when I'm reading in the paper that the trend is to turn social justice ventures into money-making enterprises. Anyone who doesn't see the red flags behind that purpose is probably a co-owner of the Brooklyn Bridge.

We already have a precedent for this form of misuse of charitable organizations. The Rotary Club is the most obvious. It claims to be an organization that attracts selfless individuals, but those of us who live near some of their members are inflicted by personalities that are anything but altruistic. It doesn't help when the city government intentionally forms bonds with members of these organizations with the intention of recruiting ambassadors for many of the city's boneheaded ideas.

So, I would say that the article has exposed a major loophole that is just spreading like a disease. If I had to put my finger on a source of inequality in our society, I would begin with these so called social justice organizations,

[marmar]

4. K/R

Love Arundhati Roy.

[polly7]

5. Kick and Recommend. nt.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Arundhati Roy is briliant. K&R

[Quantess]

7. Interesting.