2008-04-04 A chilling point of view on globalization that, if accurate, must make us angry and ashamed.

This is an important book which deserves to be read and considered carefully when forming our view on the issue of the practical and moral application of Corporate Globalization, which surely is one of the most significant changes to world order that has taken place in the last 25 years or less.

We have all learned over time that we must be careful in our quest for the truth; that we must weigh with a healthy amount of skepticism the facts as presented to us by various writers; that we must be cautious about unquestioningly accepting any particular interpretation of history, or more recent or current issues, as being fair, accurate or even honest. Naomi Klein is a radical lady. Anyone who has read her book "No Logo" will already know this. To me she comes across sometimes as an advocate of a deeply held personal point of view rather than as a fully dispassionate objective reporter. I have a sense at times that some of the facts on the other side of the debate are glossed over somewhat. I have some misgivings about the validity of a point of view that, as she presents it, seems to have only one side. All her bad guys are in one corner while the good guys are in the other. I really don't think the world is that black and white. Nevertheless......

Having stated those reservations I would say that Naomi Klein sets out for us a chilling account of the workings and influences of the laissez faire economics of the Chicago School, as expounded in the "sink-or-swim" theories of the Noble Prize winning economist Milton Friedman. Ms Klein relates how Friedmanite economics were initially tested in real life in Chile, with horrific results, subsequent to the overthrow of President Salvador Allende in 1973. In other accounts she details how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund subsequently went on to undermine the economic sovereignty of many nations by imposing Friedmanite ideology on them as a condition of support - the IMF was created in the wing of the UN, after the 2nd World War, to provide support to threatened economies and thus to preserve world stability. It was not formed to promote any specific economic ideology. But that is what happened.

She outlines many other examples of what she describes as the devastating effects of corporate globalization in action - in Argentina; Brazil; Bolivia; Uruguay; Indonesia; Russia and Poland. She describes her interpretation of "disaster capitalism" as manifested in the aftermath of the massive tsunami of 2004, in the present day corporate management of "project Iraq" and "opportunity New Orleans". She claims that the current US administration (Bush/Cheney et al) have effectively privatized the US government - a staggering thought which she supports very well with her arguments. If her facts as related are accurate, if her account tells the tale of what really happened, and is happening today, then we must make ourselves fully aware of the lengths to which greed will drive the exponents of the "free marketplace" and of the suffering that they are prepared to cause in pursuit of their economic ideology and ultimately in the acquisition of incredible wealth. The world used to be hijacked by the one with the strongest arm, the biggest sword; now it is the turn of some politicians and the big corporate bosses. That's basically her story. It's fairly convincing and definitely worth reading.