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But "invest in South America" is one thing. Dictate to South America, loot its resources, loot its social programs, give nothing back, hang with the worst elements of South American society--the brutal rich--train them in torture and killing at the School of the Americas, pour US taxpayer money into the rightwing/fascist minority, privatize everything--the water, the bus system, the oil, the public airwaves, the banks, etc.--poison the earth with toxic pesticides, nazify the society with the corrupt, failed, murderous "war on drugs," and leave the vast poor majority to eat dirt--this is quite another thing.
When Chavez re-negotiated the oil contracts with the multinationals--requiring a fairer cut for Venezuela and its social programs--and Exxon Mobil walked out of the talks, and went into "first world" courts to try to grab $12 billion in Venezuela's assets, as punishment--other corporations--France's Total, Norway's Statoil, British BP and others--agreed to Chavez's terms, and are now operating in Venezuela the way corporations should operate, respectful of the sovereignty of the people who live there, and their democratically elected governments. Exxon Mobil's notion is to kill Chavez, destroy democracy and take all the profits.
So there is investment, and there is investment. Whether I would support it or not depends on what kind of investment you are talking about, and whether the investment occurs in a context of fairness and reciprocity. And, unfortunately, our U.S. global corporate predators don't have a real good history of fairness, respect and giving back--in Latin America or here. You only have to review their history in Latin America over the last century--or, indeed, merely over the last eight years--to be suspicious of their intentions now. And look a bit farther afield--say, to Iraq--and understand that the forces running things here are without conscience, and will blow a hundred thousand innocent people to smithereens to steal their oil. South America, and, increasingly, Central America, are showing that they won't put up with this any more. I cheer them on. I wish we were as far along as they are at restoring their sovereignty and exercising their rightful power to dictate the terms of business to multinational corporations, and to corporate tools like the World Bank and the WTO. We need to do this as well. The profits that bloat global corporate monsters like Exxon Mobil, Bechtel, Dyncorp, Monsanto, Chiquita International, and their ilk--and that give them untoward influence in the world, even to hijacking the U.S. military for corporate resource wars--are unfair profits, are stolen from workers, peasants and millions of ordinary people. That kind of "investment" in Latin America has resulted in massive, shocking poverty!
I am actually a very conservative person. I think that a world in which Exxon Mobil CEOs get a third yacht, and millions of other people can't afford shoes or books, or food, and have nowhere but a shantytown shack to live in, is a highly unstable world. I don't approve of that kind of Rumsfeldian instability, in which brute force rules. I want everyone to have a decent life--food, comfort, shelter, meaningful work--and I think that is possible, without any particularly radical re-organization of business, government or society. Balance is the key. A balance of power. A balance of interests. And democracy--real democracy--is the key to balance. No one should be making $200 million a year, while others starve. That is crazy. That is a recipe for disaster. And what I see in the "uppityness" of South America is that they are taking the measures needed to restore balance, most especially as to their democratic institutions, and electing governments that assert the will of the majority over untoward corporate power--power that seeks to enrich the few to a mindboggling degree, while millions can't put food on the table. That grave imbalance has dire consequences--as to its impacts on people and on the earth's ecosystem. We are in a state of grave, dangerous imbalance--socially and environmentally.
So, when I see balance being restored among people--in Venezuela, in Bolivia and other places--when I see Exxon Mobil and Bechtel kicked out for the bad actors they are--I cheer. This does not mean that I don't want to see US investment in Latin America. What must come first, however, is respect. It must be fair trade, not bullying, bludgeoning exploitation. Are US corporations and our rich elite capable of fair trade? We'll see, I guess. They certainly have not demonstrated it here, or in the past in Latin America.
I would also like to see Latin American conscience exported to the US. They have things to teach us, which our propagandistic 'news' media have prevented most of our people from hearing about. I would especially like to see the perspective of indigenous farmers made available to our people. There is a story about the Irish potato famine, in Michael Pollan's book, "The Botany of Desire," which illustrates why the perspective of indigenous farmers is so important. In Ireland, the English lords took up all the fallow land, and the poor had only the less fertile land on which to grow food for their families. They thought that the potato, imported from Peru, was a blessing, because it would grow anywhere. Then, when the blight hit the potato crop all over Ireland, all at once, millions starved. What they didn't know is that the indigenous Peruvian farmers never grew only one kind of potato, as the poor Irish were doing. The Peruvian farmers grew 20, 30 kinds of potato, as a hedge against plant disease. If one crop failed, they had others to fall back on.
Balance.
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