We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The democratic republic of the Congo (DR Congo) after reaching the completion point

by Victor Nzuzi from CADTM

Western elites use the same strategy to plunder the resources of 3rd world countries all over the world. Basically it is this: Sponsor and corrupt local leaders, bribe them into accepting huge loans from the World Bank, IMF, or Western banks, use the money to serve Western corporations, to pay for more corruption of local war lords, arm local war lords to fight each other to create chaos, use Western aid agencies and sometimes Hollywood celebrities to provide good public relations to cover the above crimes.

The problem with liberal organizations such as CADTM is that they want to treat symptoms such as cancer with aspirin to relieve the pain instead of curing the underlying disease of economic imperialism. Or to change the metaphor, their mission is to train wolves to become vegetarians so that they stop preying on sheep. Capitalism is a system for wolves, for human predators.