Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Romney’s Blood Money

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

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Romney’s Blood Money

Click here to access article by Sandy Smith-Noninis from CounterPunch.

An off-shore tax haven in Panama provided Bain with the secrecy needed to attract the approximately $6.5 million from the Salvadoran families in what many human rights experts would call “blood money.”

While living in El Salvador in 1989, my family fell victim to rightwing terror, so I took the news like a punch in the gut. But as a professor, I know that the generation of Americans born since 1980 has little awareness of the troubled U.S. history of aiding Central American militarism. Perhaps that is why this story has not been more widely reported. Let me explain why I use such a rude term as blood money.

While all US leaders are involved in some form of blood money, usually indirectly, this report reveals how the Republican nominee for US President is directly linked.