Viewpoint Essay treat both the Korten reading and the other chapter in this Unit that you choose to write on. There must be an approximately equal treatment of both of these two articles (it is not enough to throw in a sentence about the second article). need both articles addressed for full credit
Chapter 30. John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Focus on any one or two of the following questions:
1. What does he say about economic hit men on the first page of his Preface? (p. ix)
2. What was his experience in Ecuador, described in the Prologue? (pp xvi to xxi) Who are “the jackals”? (p. xxi) Whose interests were being served?
3. How did he get recruited to the NSA? (pp. 3-11)
4. What was MAIN, the “closely held corporation” that he worked for? (pp. 12-13)
5. Who was Claudine, and how did she explain to him what his responsibilities would be? What were they? Explain(pp. 14-19)
6. Describe his experience in Indonesia. (pp. 23 – 39)
7. Why does Perkins say, “…the global empire depends to a large extent on the fact that the dollar acts as the standard world currency, and that the United States mint has the right to print these dollars. Thus we make loans to countries like Ecuador with the full knowledge that they will never repay them; in fact we do not want them to honor their debts…” (p. 212)
Vandana Shiva (links to video talks). What are Vandana Shiva’s positions on GMO’s? What are her views about the exploitation of women in “masculinized agriculture?” What forms of resistance does she discuss and participate in?
9. What kinds of limits were set on corporate charters? (p. 79
14. What do you make of this quote from Korten? “Behind its carefully crafted public relations image and the many fine, ethical people it may employ, the body of a corporation is its corporate charter, a legal document, and money is its blood. At its core it is an alien entity with one goal: to reproduce money to nourish and replicate itself. Individuals are dispensable. The corporation owes only one true allegiance: to the financial markets, which are more totally creatures of money than even the corporation itself.” (p. 89)
