Gangster Capitalism And

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Gangster Capitalism And

The Third Maroon War By John Maxwell

04 December, 2006Black Agenda Report

We are all Maroons now, whether we know it or not, wherever we are on the

face of the Earth, whoever we are, black, white or in-between, male orfemale, human, as long as we are alive, animal or vegetable, on land or in thesea or the air, our very eistence is under attack!

"f we want to survive we have to take action! #e need to resist the destructionof our own and our $lanet%s integrity, resist degradation and deformity and$rotect ourselves from etinction!

#e are under siege by a system gone mad, an economic system goneberserk, unaccountable to anyone and res$onsible to nothing because thissystem has no rules! "t can do anything it wants to anyone, any livingorganism!

&'uman dignity itself becomes a marketable commodity!(

"t is destroying oceans, mountains and entire ecosystems, and with giantdams, even slowing the revolution of the Earth! "t destroys everything in itsway, creating deserts out of fertile land, submerging low-lying lands ,$oisoning the air we breathe, altering weather systems in un$redictable waysand $roducing more destructive hurricanes and ty$hoons, even slowing downthe mighty )ulf *tream itself , destroying the ice-cover at the +orth ole,breaking u$ the ice continent of ntarctica into icebergs bigger than .amaicaand threatening life itself everywhere on Earth!

"t is a system described by )eorge *oros, one of the world%s richest men, as

&)angster /a$italism!(

n the world stage it calls itself &)lobali1ation!( n the local stage,everywhere, its adherents call it &Develo$ment!(

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"n this system, everything and everyone is for sale! 'uman dignity itselfbecomes a marketable commodity, affordable to those with enough money to

buy themselves a little time!

A Father Kills is !on

"n ietnam forty years ago, the mericans thought they were buying time andsafeguarding rogress! 3he Domino 3heory was ascendant, and *outh East

sia was to be made safe for democracy! 3his ideal led to the killing andmaiming hundreds of thousands of $eo$le, some merican, someietnamese! 'ere is the story of three mericans

3he son s$eaks &3he areas around us were heavily defoliated, so defoliated

that they looked like burned-out areas, many of them! 5ou know, almost everyday that you were in riverboat $atrol, you were being sub7ected to the gentrange factor!(

3he father s$eaks & "t is the case that the $articular area in ietnam in whichmy son8s boat o$erated a great deal of the time was an area that was s$rayedu$on my recommendation, and in that sense it8s $articularly ironic that in asense, if the causal relationshi$ can be established, " have become aninstrument of my son8s own tragedy!

3he son is Elmo 9umwalt """, son of Elmo 9umwalt "", dmiral and /hief of

+aval $erations of the :*! Elmo the younger died at 42, destroyed bycancers induced by gent range! 'is father died ;; years later, aged <=!

#hile serving as /ommander of :* naval forces in ietnam from ;=6> to;=<0 the elder 9umwalt had ordered the s$raying of the defoliant gentrange in the Mekong Delta, seeking to deny cover to sni$ers on the riverbanks!

3he older 9umwalt killed his son? 'is son%s genes, deformed by gentrange, severely damaged his grandson%s nervous system resulting inserious learning disabilities! 'e is unable to s$eak for himself!

'undreds of thousands of south east sians were also killed and maimed by gent range and many of their children have been born and are now beingborn dead, disabled or hideously deformed!

"#ioxin is now present in the waters o$ Kingson ar%or&



gent range is a miture of two $henoyl herbicides @ 2,4-dichloro$henoyacetic acid A2,4-DB and 2,4,C-trichloro$henoyacetic acid

A2,4,C-3B! 3hese were develo$ed for agro-industry @ factory farming @ tocontrol broad-leaved weeds! "n broad-leaved $lants they induce ra$id,uncontrolled growth, eventually killing them! 3hey were used all over theworld by the middle of the ;=C0s! t least one Etension fficer in .amaica,my friend &uddha( #ebster, was killed by e$osure to this toin!

"t was later learned that a dioin, 2,,<,>-tetrachlorodiben1o-$ara-dioinA3/DDB, is $roduced as a by$roduct of the manufacture of 2,4,C-3, and wasthus $resent in any of the herbicides that used it! 3his chemical is amongthose now $resent in the waters of Fingston 'arbor, and as " $ointed out fiveyears ago, were redistributed in the dredging of the harbor! 3/DD is a

carcinogen, freGuently associated with soft-tissue sarcoma, +on-'odgkin8slym$homa, 'odgkin8s disease and chronic lym$hocytic leukemia A/HHB! 2,4,C-3 has since been banned for use in the :* and many other countries! "tsinitial effects include liver damage, loss of energy and diminished se drive!

During the ;=<0s, at the height of the destabili1ation of the Manleygovernment, " saw at +ew$ort East, a big transformer built for .* dro$$edonto the Guayside, breaking o$en and s$illing into the harbor gallons ofdioins, which remain there to this day!

The Reso'rce C'rse

lmost all the countries now described as &develo$ing( or &underdevelo$ed(share one ma7or characteristic for hundreds of years their $eo$le, their lands

@ their resources @ have $rovided the raw materials for the develo$ment ofthe so-called &develo$ed world!(

s one merican comic has said &#hat is our oil doing underneath "raG andene1uelaI(

lmost every war ever fought and most of today%s wars and civil wars derivefrom the idea that the strong are entitled to the resources of the weak

because the weak don%t know how to use their resources a$$ro$riately! "n this$ers$ective, .amaican farmland is not serving its $ro$er $ur$ose by$roducing food! .amaican bauite is necessary for &rogress( @ to make more$lanes, more frying $ans, more garbage and to stiffen the )D!

"There is an imminent threat o$ catastrophic changes %eca'se o$ glo%alwarming(&



"n Jio de .aneiro, fourteen years ago, $olitical leaders and bureaucrats from

all over the world Aincluding .amaican rime Minister !.! attersonB met toagree on a new com$act to define develo$ment or &$rogress( if you will! 3heysigned the 3reaty of Jio, otherwise known as genda 2; and it committed thenations of the world to work together to assure the survival of the $lanet andall the living things which inhabit it by ado$ting and $racticing *ustainableDevelo$ment!

3he first $aragra$h of the $reamble of the treaty is worth remembering

&'umanity stands at a defining moment in history! #e are confronted with a$er$etuation of dis$arities between and within nations, a worsening of

$overty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of theecosystems on which we de$end for our well-being!(

Environmentalists $ut it more crudely #e are living beyond our means,overdrawing our credit from the earth, destroying finite resources for greed!

3he oil industry is only now waking u$ to the $ros$ect that its behavior maycondemn all of us to a future of darkness, disease and destitution? only nowbeginning to recogni1e that there is an imminent threat of catastro$hicchanges because of global warming! Even Mr! ush and Mr! 'oward of

ustralia seem to be seeing the light! 3he /hinese seem to have some way

to go before they emerge from their tunnel of develo$ment!

"n the Jio statement on *ustainable Develo$ment, the world%s leadersacknowledged &the integral and interde$endent nature of the Earth, ourhome( and $roclaimed as the first $rinci$le of develo$ment that

&'uman beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable develo$ment!3hey are entitled to a healthy and $roductive life in harmony with nature!(

The )redator*s )rogress

rogress is today defined by measuring how much of one%s $atrimony can besafely delivered into the hands of develo$ers! #e offer them incentives tocome to des$oil our $atrimony, abuse and deform our social relations andgenerally disinherit us! "n gracious echange they will make billions of ta freedollars and demonstrate how different they are to the rest of the miserableand o$$ressed of the earth! "n return we can live in the ron!



ll over the world indigenous $o$ulations are counseled to be investorfriendly, to assist the des$oliation of their holy mountains in /hile? the

$oisoning of their streams and the deforestation of their landsca$es in +ew)uinea? the dis$lacement, murder and ra$e of thousands to make way for oil$i$elines in urma AMyanmarB! 3he rogress-bringers are destroying theglaciers of "celand, the .arrah forests of #estern ustralia and the communaltranGuility of the /edros eninsula in 3rinidad!

&#e offer them incentives to come to des$oil our $atrimony, abuse anddeform our social relations and generally disinherit us!(

3he 200C 5aleK/olumbia Environmental *ustainability "nde AE*"B showed3rinidad and 3obago as having the worst $ercentage of negative land im$acts

of ;46 countries, yet 3rinidad8s government is ignoring the $rotests of its$eo$le who don%t want any more $ollution and degradation of their small andbeautiful island!

ublic $rotests in /hile, ra1il and ietnam have ke$t $ro$osed aluminumsmelters out of those countries 3he 3rinidadian citi1ens grou$ /edroseninsula :nited say that when they managed to obtain a co$y of lcoa8sAsecretB Environmental /learance @ 7ointly signed by lcoa and thegovernment8s Energy /or$oration @ they found it full of omissions,inaccuracies and outright false statements!

3he arrick /or$oration of /anada, like lcoa, a transnational des$oiler ofthe environment, is $ro$osing to mine C00 tons of gold from mountain $eaksin /hile! 3he arrick cor$oration intends AHisten to 3hisLB to relocate threeglaciers Arivers of iceB to get at the gold!

s you might imagine, the $eo$le of /hile are not acce$ting this $ro$osedra$e of their environment!

+n,ironmental Time-Bom%s

3he $ro$osed assault on the /ock$it /ountry in .amaicaNis not sim$ly an

assault on the sensibilities of a few environmentalists! "t is an affront to thewhole of humanity! #hen the great devastation comes we won%t be saved bybauite or alumina, but by the s$ecies finding shelter in the land of Hookehind and similar refuges around the world!

hundred years ago .ules erne described the )ulf *tream as Othe sea8sgreatest river,andN we must $ray that this steadiness continues because !!! if



its s$eed and direction were to change, the climates of Euro$e wouldundergo disturbances whose conseGuences are incalculable!O

3he *ea%s )reatest Jiver is slowing down, and the conseGuences have beencalculated! few weeks ago the ritish government $ublished a re$ort by *ir+icholas *tern on the economic conseGuences of climate change! 3he re$ortsays the $ossibility of avoiding a global catastro$he is Oalready almost out ofreach!O

*tern says changes in weather $atterns could drive down the out$ut of theworld8s economies by u$ to P6 trillion a year by 20C0, an amount eGuivalent toalmost the entire out$ut of the E:! 3his catastro$hic $ros$ect is the directresult of &rogress( as defined by $eo$le who have more money than

conscience!

"The possi%ility o$ a,oiding a glo%al catastrophe is .already almost o'to$ reach(*&

"f the )ulf *tream slows to a sto$ or even if it sim$ly continues to slow down,the effects on climate, farming and the $o$ulations of the world will be in oneword, Disaster!

.ose$h *tiglit1, +obel ri1e Economist of 200;, former /hief Economist of

the #orld ank says

&3he *tern Jeview of the Economics of /limate /hange makes clear thatthe Guestion is not whether we can afford to act, but whether we can affordnot to act! 3he re$ortN $rovides a com$rehensive agenda @ one which iseconomically and $olitically feasible @ behind which the entire world can unitein addressing this most im$ortant threat to our future well being!(

+either *tern nor *tiglit1 nor *oros is some wool-gathering tree-hugger! 3heyare among the $eo$le recogni1ed as the brightest in the world! " $refer tobelieve them rather than some J flack from any aluminum com$any or the

ort uthority or any other agency of the .amaican government!

3he *$anish hotels on the +orth coast are disasters in their own right and willsoon become catastro$hic losses because of sea level rise and hurricanes!

nd we will $ay for them as we will $ay for the Doomsday 'ighway which isalready obsolete!



s " $ointed out in my column, &eo$le at Jisk( in Qebruary 2002, some of thegeniuses of the .amaican &develo$ment( $rocess tolerate no o$$osition to

&rogress!( 3hey will destroy our coral reefs and degrade the harbor to takebigger container shi$s @ themselves etinct within twenty years! t that time "re$orted that the bottom of Fingston 'arbor contained several etremelydangerous substances and warned that . dredging would redistribute themun$redictably and in a manner which would almost certainly be ha1ardous tohealth, $articularly to the $eo$le of ortmore " re$orted that among toins$resent were rsenic, /admium, Dioins Aincluding derivatives of gentrangeB, Head, Hindane, 'eachloroben1ene, 3etrachloroethylene and good,old Mad 'atter%s Mercury!

&rogress( has brought civil war, genocide and '"K"D* to frica! "t has

deformed our $olitics, driven away our best and brightest all in search of the'oly )rail of &Develo$ment!(

#e can eat 3relawny yam and gungoo $eas! #e can%t eat Jed Mud, althoughwe may have to drink it, if $rogress has its way with the Hand of Hook ehind!

rosit L

John Maxwell of the :niversity of the #est "ndies A:#"B is the veteran.amaican 7ournalist who in ;=== single-handedly thwarted the .amaicangovernment8s efforts to build houses at 'o$e, the nation8s oldest and best

known botanical gardens! 'is cam$aigning earned him first $ri1e in the 2000*andals Jesort8s nnual Environmental .ournalism /om$etition, the region8srichest 7ournalism $ri1e! 'e is also the author of 'ow to Make ur wn+ews rimer for Environmentalists and .ournalists! .amaica, 2000! Mr!Mawell can be reached at maxin$/cw0amaica(com

3his article originally a$$eared in the .amaica bserver

/o$yrightR2006.ohn Mawell

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Gangster Capitalism And