

### The Book of Change: A Tapestry of 21st Century Culture

Volume 1: Global Finance vs. The People

Laurie Izzy

Copyright 2013 Laurie Izzy  
Smashwords Edition

### Table of Contents

OVERVIEW

THE CENTRAL BANK

THE WORLD BANK AND INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

THE ROTHSCHILD'S, ROCKEFELLER'S AND BRICS

GOLDMAN SACHS AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

BAILOUTS

BANKS AND THE BASEL ACCORDS

JPMORGAN CHASE

THE BANK FOR INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS

A NEW WORLD ORDER

THE ILLUMINATI

US FEDERAL DEBT

GLOBAL FINANCE AND WAR

THE WAR ECONOMY

ECONOMIC WARFARE

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

WAR ECONOMY EQUALS MONEY

THE U.S. WAR ECONOMY

THE ROLE OF MILITARY PERSONNEL

VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR ON IRAQ

THE WAR ON AFGHANISTAN

HOW 9/11 SET THE STAGE

MIDDLE EAST CASUALTIES

DRONES

GLOBAL FINANCE AND YOU

SWEAT SHOPS

COMPANIES WITH TIES TO SWEATSHOPS

GLOBAL FINANCE AND AFRICA

AFRICAN DIAMOND AND IVORY TRADE

FAIR TRADE

THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT

CREDIT CARD DEBT

GLOBAL FINANCE AND POPULATION GROWTH

GLOBAL FINANCE AND MONSANTO

DISASTER RELIEF, FOREIGN AID AND FRAUD

FOREIGN AID TO AFRICA AND AFGHANISTAN

KONY 2012

PERSONAL FINANCIAL CHANGE

OVERVIEW

THE QUEST FOR MATERIALISM: THE MANIFEST DESTINY MINDSET

FINANCIAL STRESS LINKED PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL STRESS

FINANCIAL STRESS LINKED TO MEDICATION

LIFESTYLE AND DEBT

FINANCIAL STRESS ABSORBED BY CHILDREN

CHILDHOOD OBESITY

ADHD: THE BILLION DOLLAR CHILDHOOD EPIDEMIC

Overview

" _You must_ _be the change_ _you want to see in the world."  
_ Mahatma Gandhi

If you haven't yet read the Reader's Companion Guide, you can find it  here.

***

It would appear that money is the root cause of the world's suffering these days and financial pains are not just experienced on a global scale. Financial pains are experienced on a personal scale within our own wallets, debt loads and dwindling bank accounts.

Let's begin with an overview of the global financial world and work our way towards personal finances.

The laws of cause and effect are alive and well in the world of finance even though a growing number of organizations and people choose to ignore rule number one: if you spend more than you have there will debt. If there is debt, the credit/banking system is going to charge interest until the debt can be repaid. The longer it takes to pay back, the more money it costs to get out of the hole. If more money is needed we either have to create or earn more money to cover the rising cost of our debt (interest charges every month) or we have to sell off assets to pay the debt back. Financial debt is the same for you as it is for me, corporations, governments and entire countries that spend more than they have.

Speaking of corporations and entire countries - who injects the extra money (bailouts) when countries and corporations fall short of their financial responsibilities? Glad you asked. They go where the rest of us go: to the Bank. Let's start with the big ones: The Central Banks and The World Bank.

The Central Bank

A central bank or reserve bank is the organization within a specific country or coalition of countries that regulates all of the currency supplies and related policies for that particular area. Central banks perform various actions, but its most important job is to make certain that the national currency and money supply remain stable...

The specific functions of a central bank may include many different tasks. This type of bank has responsibilities that may include distribution of currency and implementation of monetary policy. Regulating the banking industry and setting official interest rates may also be done there. Some countries ask their central bank to be the government's bank and also a lender to smaller banks, allowing them an out within difficult times.

_In the United States, the Federal Reserve is the principal monetary authority. Created by Congress, it operates independent of the US federal government. In Europe, the European Central Bank controls the euro, which is a form of currency that is used by the member countries of the Eurozone... The only European countries without a central bank are Monaco and Andorra. Almost every other country in the world either has its own central bank or is a member country of a blanket type system..._ [1]

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund

What is the World Bank, and what does it do?

The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We help governments in developing countries reduce poverty by providing them with money and technical expertise they need for a wide range of projects—such as education, health, infrastructure, communications, government reforms, and for many other purposes.

We (approx. 10,000 employees worldwide) apply our skills and the Bank's resources to bridge the economic divide between poor and rich countries, to turn rich country resources into poor country growth, and to achieve sustainable poverty reduction.

Who owns the World Bank?

_The Bank is like a cooperative in which 187 member countries are shareholders._ [2]

Something to become aware of is the (IMF) _International Monetary Fund_. You would think with 'fund' in the title it would suggest it's a pot of money. But when you read about it, it's not a pot of money. The IMF is another organization with the same member countries that oversee the international monetary system. Yep, I was confused too.

What is the IMF?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 187 countries (as with the World Bank), working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

The IMF oversees the international monetary system and monitors the financial and economic policies of its members. It keeps track of economic developments on a national, regional, and global basis, consulting regularly with member countries and providing them with macroeconomic and financial policy advice.

So what's the real difference between the two?

_If you have difficulty distinguishing the World Bank from the International Monetary Fund, you are not alone...Even John Maynard Keynes, a founding father of the two institutions and considered by many the most brilliant economist of the twentieth century, admitted at the inaugural meeting of the International Monetary Fund that he was confused by the names: he thought the Fund should be called a bank, and the Bank should be called a fund. Confusion has reigned ever since..._ [3]

That doesn't help at all really. I think the master plan might be to baffle the rest of us with bullshit so we never know where the money goes.

Even if we don't understand the ins and outs of global finance, the first step in comprehending how it relates to us is this: whatever happens out there (around the globe) eventually happens in here (our own personal lives) and vice versa. It is all connected.

The people who are at the helm of global finance are very powerful people. They come from a long lineage of bankers, investors, real estate moguls, politicians, financiers and they keep their friends close and very much employed.

The Rothschild's, Rockefeller's and BRICS

I'm going to encourage you to seek more information if you're interested in these families beyond the following excerpt. It's from a June 2012 article about a merger between two of the wealthiest sets of relatives in the Western world.

Transatlantic alliance between Rothschild's and Rockefellers for wealth management

As if they weren't already well connected enough, the world's two greatest dynasties joined forces yesterday as Europe's Rothschild banking clan bought a stake in the Rockefeller group's wealth and asset management business to gain a foothold in the US.

The patriarchs of the two families – 96-year-old David Rockefeller and Jacob Rothschild, 76 – cemented a five-decade acquaintance as the younger man's London-based £2bn RIT Capital investment trust bought a 37 per cent stake in the American's business. The Rockefeller family's journey to vast riches began in 1870 when John D Rockefeller set up Standard Oil and went on establish a fortune that is widely regarded to be the largest in US history. The family's wealth management operation was set up in 1882 to manage that fortune.

_The Rothschild dynasty goes back even further, to when Mayer Amschel Rothschild started a business in Frankfurt towards the end of the 18th century. It helped finance Britain's war against Napoleon in the 19th century and raised funds for a loan allowing the British government to buy the Suez Canal._ [4]

We know the U.S. and Europe have been the leaders of the world's economies over the last few centuries but the new kids on the block such as India and China don't necessarily belong to the in-crowd. Or do they? Remember the tens of thousands of Western jobs lost to the emerging economies overseas during the last few decades? The money goes where the money _grows_.

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. That's thanks to Jim O'Neill, the Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who created the term BRIC in 2001.

_The acronym highlights the role of developing economies in world finance, and explores their impact as emerging powerhouses. BRIC has since become a symbol of the shift in global economic power towards the developing world._ [5]

Suggested Reading:

The World is Flat: Brief History of the 21st Century, Thomas L. Friedman (2005)

Since the Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management created the term, next we need to understand what Goldman Sachs has to do with global finance beyond BRICS.

Goldman Sachs and the Financial Crisis

_(2007) No wonder this nebbishly Master of the Universe is smiling:_ _Lloyd Blankfein_ _, 52,_ has _spent seven months now as chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group, the richest, shrewdest and most powerful investment bank in the world. He just earned US$53 million. The firm hit US$9.5 billion in net income in 2006 even as it paid out an astonishing US$16.5 billion in compensation to the faithful, most of it in year-end bonuses. Goldman's earnings set an all-time high for investment banks in 2005--then grew 76% last year to set a new record. In 2006 revenue rose 50% to US$38 billion (net of interest cost). Its dealmakers handled an industry-high $1.1 trillion in mergers and acquisitions; its wealth managers raked in $94 billion in new customer money. It's stock climbed 55% to hover near US$200._ [6]

If their earnings were at an all time high, why did the U.S. government have to bail them out to the tune of over 70 million dollars? Was there no insurances in place? How about warning signs? Were there no regulations to prevent such monumental losses? Where were all the Industry Analysts who are paid big salaries to watch trends?

I'm not an economist. I don't even like math. But for crying out loud even I can see that the numbers just don't make sense.

Before we continue let's stop here to take a breath and gather some information about those bailouts with a focus (for now) on financial institutions.

According to a variety of sources, here are your top 10-bailout recipients:

1. AIG

2. Citibank

3. Bank of America

4. JP Morgan

5. General Motors

6. Wells Fargo

7. Chrysler

8. Morgan-Stanley

9. Goldman Sachs

10. PNC Financial[7]

Bailouts

_In economics, a bailout is an act of loaning or giving capital to an entity that is in danger of failing, in an attempt to save it from bankruptcy, insolvency, or total liquidation and ruin; or to allow a failing entity to fail gracefully without spreading contagion._ [8]

No doubt you're familiar with the U.S financial bailout (2008's 700 Billion dollar stimulus package) for major North American corporations: Investment Banks, Wall Street, the U.S. Auto Industry, AIG Insurance, U.S. Housing & Mortgage organizations to name a few. Here is a good book from an insider's perspective, which would be considered a subject matter expert:

Suggested Reading:

Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street, Neil Barofsky (2012)

In addition to the Institutional bailouts, several Countries were bailed out too - to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. (Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Italy). All this while the average industrialized citizen charged their credit accounts with things they felt entitled to.

Entitlement is a social condition of the 21st Century and it is driving our species beyond the point of no return in more ways than financial disasters. However, as far as it's role in the financial collapse, entitlement helped perpetuate it. People wanted to see unreasonable returns on their investments, bought more than they could afford, borrowed more than they were capable of paying back etc., and when they lost the gamble, they cried wolf. Sure the big bad corporations cheated many people out of their homes and out of their retirement funds – but maybe it was the wake-up call so many people needed.

Check out this commentary on the U.S.'s state of financial affairs after the crisis:

_2010] Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP_ , _which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. We have nearly totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. A great day of financial reckoning is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious._[ [9]

Before you get angry at the 'jobs shipped overseas' part, just remember why that happened: We wanted to buy products and services that were less expensive than those made in America...so we did. It's all connected.

Fast forward to the summer of 2012 where a fall out boy or sacrificial lamb was given up to the U.S. Justice System and the press to appease the public cries of being cheated. After that, it was business as usual...minus the lamb.

_NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Rajat Gupta, the consummate corporate insider and former director at_ _Goldman Sachs_ _, was found guilty of insider trading on Friday June 15]-- the highest-profile conviction yet in a wave of federal cases focused on Wall Street misconduct. Dubbed_ _"Operation Perfect Hedge,"_ _the effort has utilized investigative tools like wiretaps and informants that are more commonly associated with other kinds of crime. Wiretaps were first used to target insider trading in the case of_ _Raj Rajaratnam_ _, a friend of Gupta and the manager of hedge fund Galleon who received a record 11 years in prison last year after earning $64 million in a long-running insider trading scheme._[ [10]

Among the shortsighted, there were cheers of retribution. The long term observers however still have their doubts, especially when it comes to contrived mass media headlines about 'justice' - and here's why:

The "super-rich elite" are hiding more than $21 trillion US in tax havens around the world, an amount roughly equal to the combined GDP of the United States and Japan, according to a new report.

Researched and written by James Henry, an expert on tax havens, the report states the hidden money could be as large as $32 trillion, and represents a massive black hole in the world's economy.

The report says:

• _UBS, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are the three private banks handling the most assets offshore_

• _92,000 people, or 0.001 per cent of the world's population, hold $21 trillion in hidden assets_

_Henry, who collected data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Bank of International Settlements, said the figure he came up with is conservative because it doesn't take into account property like yachts or other physical assets..."These estimates reveal a staggering failure: inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people," said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network._ [11]

I am not sure why so many are content to watch the global financiers get away with profiteering. Maybe it's because the reality of blowing the whistle at those who had a hand in the events, have way too many fingers in the global financial pie for the real truth to get out.

Case in point, as of August 2012 the U.S. government dropped any further actions against Goldman Sachs with regards to their part in the financial crisis of 2008 _._ Of course they did. They already sacrificed one lamb – why take down the whole herd?

_WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department said late Thursday it has dropped its investigation of Goldman Sachs' actions during the nation's financial crisis...The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had questioned Goldman's sale of mortgage securities to investors that turned out to be big losers during the crisis._ _The panel also said prosecutors should investigate whether bank Chief Executive Officer_ _Lloyd Blankfein_ _had misled lawmakers during public testimony._ [12]

Suggested Movies

Inside Job (2010) & Chasing Madoff (2011)

Suggested Theme Song

The Lies That I Believe, Ian Thornley (2004)

Suggested Website

Council on Foreign Relations

Trillions of dollars were spent in stimulus packages and bailouts and yet global financial woes still loom large in 2013. If throwing more money at the banks didn't fix them, what will?

Perhaps the banking rules need to change.

Banks and the Basel Accords

Banks have rules and regulations just like any other institution. And you know what they say – rules were made to be broken. I think it's safe to say the Banks, or, those at the helm of some of the World and Central banks, have broken the rules.

We may not exactly know where the trillions of dollars went and we may not know who specifically gave the go-ahead to print trillions for bailouts and stimulus packages for certain corporations, institutions and entire Countries, but we know it doesn't add up.

We may not understand the complex world order of monetary distribution and economics but we can smell a rat or twenty who seem to be hoarding more than their fair share of the cheese.

Let's take a brief look at something called Basel Accords (rules designed to regulate Banks) to see if we can figure out how a financial collapse could occur when there were rules in place to guard against it from occurring in the first place.

What is a Basel Accord?

A set of agreements set by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS), which provides recommendations on banking regulations in regards to capital risk, market risk and operational risk. The purpose of the accords is to ensure that financial institutions have enough capital on account to meet obligations and absorb unexpected losses.

The first Basel Accord, known as Basel I, was issued in 1988 and focuses on the capital adequacy of financial institutions. The capital adequacy risk, (the risk that a financial institution will be hurt by an unexpected loss), categorizes the assets of financial institutions into five risk categories (0%, 10%, 20%, 50%, 100%). Banks that operate internationally are required to have a risk weight of 8% or less.

_The second Basel Accord, known as Basel II, is to be fully implemented by 2015. It focuses on three main areas, including minimum capital requirements, supervisory review and market discipline, which are known as the three pillars. The focus of this accord is to strengthen international banking requirements as well as to supervise and enforce these requirements._ [13]

Hmm. Supervisory review? Where was it before the financial collapse? Oh right. It says " _fully implemented by 2015_ " and we're not there yet.

Alas, there is a Basel Accord III....

_Basel III is a set of international banking regulations developed by the Bank for International Settlements in order to promote stability in the international financial system. The purpose of Basel III is to reduce the ability of banks to damage the economy by taking on excess risk. (Problems with the original accord became evident during the subprime crisis in 2007)..._ [No shit].

_While banking regulations may help reduce the possibility of future financial crises, it may also restrain future economic growth. This is because bank lending and the provision of credit are among the primary drivers of economic activity in the modern economy. Therefore, any regulations designed to restrain the provision of credit are likely to hinder economic growth, at least to some degree. Nevertheless, following the events of the financial crisis, many regulators, financial market participants and ordinary individuals are willing to accept slightly slower economic growth for the possibility of greater stability and a decreased likelihood of a repeat of the events of 2008/2009._ [14]

Okay, so that's reasonable right? If a system isn't working, then it should be fixed and it makes sense to create new rules. The only problem is not everyone wants to see the system fixed and not everyone wants new rules. Why?

New rules make it harder to cheat. Just ask the nearest Olympic or high profile athlete who got busted for doping (cheating). Chances are if they got caught, they got away with cheating a long time prior to new rules and testing procedures. Cheating is a character flaw and cheaters find a way to beat the system of rules that try to prevent it. Let's get back to banking.

Remember the IMF (the International Monetary Fund)? They have issues with the Basel III reforms, as do others who have something to lose. Read on.

[September 2012] The Basel III rules, which set tougher requirements for capital and liquidity, have been sharply criticized by banks, which say they will reduce lending and growth.

_Last year_ _Jamie Dimon,_ _chief executive of_ _JPMorgan Chase_ _, described them as "anti-American". The Institute of International Finance, a global association of banks and financial institutions, has argued that Basel III will reduce global gross domestic product by 3.2 per cent by 2015 and increase lending rates by about five percentage points in the US and UK._ [15]

Before we look into another world bank, let's take a look at JPMorgan Chase, who was a player in the financial crisis and who has since denounced the new Basel regulations. You'll see the CEO's name mentioned again in an article capturing the billions of losses JPMorgan didn't report.

JPMorgan Chase

[July 17, 2012] JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank by assets, announced Friday that the trading loss from derivatives bets made by its Chief Investment Office (CIO) had reached $5.8 billion, nearly three times the amount the company had revealed in May. It added that the bad bets could result in an additional $1.7 billion in losses over the rest of the year.

... _JPMorgan's report to the SEC on Friday indicates that the bank recorded a $718 million loss from the London trades on its internal accounts, but did not report the loss in its first quarter earnings statement. In other words, JPMorgan deliberately falsified its first quarter report to the SEC in order to conceal its massive gambling losses. This is a crime—a violation of banking laws for which_ _Dimon_ _, as the CEO, is responsible. That Dimon was involved in a cover-up is underscored by the proof contained in Friday's report to the SEC that he was already aware his bank had lost hundreds of millions if not billions when he told a conference call in April that reports of major losses by the bank's CIO were "a tempest in a teapot."_

The trading loss debacle is only one of many scandals engulfing JPMorgan Chase.

• _The bank is currently under investigation for helping to manipulate the London interbank lending rate (Libor), together with other major banks, in order to conceal financial weaknesses and boost profits from speculative bets on derivatives linked to Libor, the most important global benchmark for trillions of dollars in mortgages, credit cards, student loans and other financial products._

• _The SEC and other regulators are investigating allegations by current and former JPMorgan financial advisers that the company encouraged them to sell their clients JPMorgan mutual funds when it was against the clients' interests._

• _The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has sued JPMorgan to force it to hand over emails related to alleged price-gouging in electrical power markets in California and the Midwest by one of the bank's subsidiaries._

_Dimon has been handsomely rewarded for his role in facilitating these various schemes. He received $23.1 million in compensation last year, up 11 percent from 2010. In this he joined the heads of other major banks, who received an average 12 percent pay increase in 2011._ [16]

We talked about Central Banks, the World Bank and the IMF previously. Well, there is another one called the Bank for International Settlements that crept into an earlier definition for the Basel Accords. It's the bank that provides money to many Nation's Central Banks in addition to 'other' organizations. I told you it was complicated. There's a reason for me going into it this far – hang in there.

The Bank for International Settlements

The head office is in Basel, and there are two representative offices: in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and in Mexico City.

_Established on 17 May 1930, the BIS is the world's oldest international financial organization_.

As its customers are central banks and international organizations, the BIS does not accept deposits from, or provide financial services to, private individuals or corporate entities.

The BIS offers a wide range of financial services specifically designed to assist central banks and other official monetary institutions in the management of their foreign exchange reserves. Some 140 customers, including various international financial institutions, currently make use of these services and on average, over the last few years, some 4% of global foreign exchange reserves have been invested by central banks with the BIS. BIS financial services are provided out of two linked trading rooms: one at its Basel head office and one at its office in Hong Kong SAR.

The Bank continually adapts its product range in order to respond more effectively to the evolving needs of central banks. Besides standard services such as sight/notice accounts and fixed-term deposits, the Bank has developed a range of more sophisticated financial products which central banks can actively trade with the BIS to increase the return on their foreign assets. The Bank also transacts foreign exchange and gold on behalf of its customers.

_In addition, the BIS offers a range of asset management services in sovereign securities or high-grade assets. These may be either a specific portfolio mandate negotiated between the BIS and a central bank or an open-end fund structure - the BIS Investment Pool (BISIP) - allowing customers to invest in a common pool of assets. The two Asian Bond Funds (ABF1 and ABF2) are administered by the BIS under the BISIP umbrella: ABF1 is managed by the BIS and ABF2 by a group of external fund managers._ [17]

Good grief. Overwhelmed yet? I am. Here is the moral of the story as I see it. The global financial world becomes more complicated the more we dig around, right? Well, that's very good news and here's why.

Some say the goal of those who hold the world's purse strings is to make things so complex, so multi-level and so incestuous that no solution, rule, law or regulation would ever be able to control or charge them with wrong-doing. If the U.S. Justice Department can't figure it out, how is the average citizen supposed to?

" _The other thing is, there is huge amount of blame to go around and it's really hard to pin all on one criminal act. We all were part of that big bubble. The borrowers were part of it, the underwriters were part of it, the investors were part of it, the ratings agencies were part of it, the politicians were part of it \-- the regulators themselves were part of it, and that may be part of the reasons they're not being too zealous about bringing the charges, because they know all of the fault is on themselves"...Interview with Felix Salmon, Reuters, August 10, 2012_ [18]

You and I will never be able to control (nor will we ever see) any of that money. Not today, not tomorrow and not ever. All we can control is our own dollars, our own sense and ourselves. Yes, I spelled it that way on purpose.

For those who want to know who holds the world's purse strings, you might consider some of the theories that fester under the radar. Just a word of caution; propaganda works for both sides. Don't believe _every_ conspiracy theory you read but don't discount them all either. Seek more, talk to others, consider all _possibilities_ , use common sense and keep your eyes and ears open. Critical thinking in these times of global smoke screens will be your best friend, guide and teacher. You can uncover the truth if you are willing to see it.

A New World Order

In light of the fact there seems to be particular groups who profited from the global financial upheavals, is it any wonder people speak of a new world order led by the masters of all the puppets? Let's investigate a little further.

Here is an example of 'reasonable' information that is hard to read yet seems rational. It seems rational even though emotionally we don't want to believe it. We don't want to believe it because it sheds a light on the reality of our times. Realism[19] is good. It's supposed to be shocking. It's supposed to inspire you towards change.

In a Newsmax.com article it was shown that a prominent Russian economic expert predicted that a major disaster would soon strike the United States. Dr. Tatyana Koryagina, a senior research fellow in the Institute of Macroeconomic Researches subordinated to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, and reportedly close to President Putins inner circle, stated in an interview in Pravda:

"The U.S. has been chosen as the object of financial attack because the financial center of the planet is located there. The effect will be maximal. The strike waves of economic crisis will spread over the planet instantly, and will remind us of the blast of a huge nuclear bomb."

Dr. Koryagina was reached after the September 11 disasters and she commented:

"As a result [of the attacks] a significant part of the world financial network was paralyzed. This strike was aimed at destabilization and destruction of America and [in domino fashion] all the countries making countless billions of dollars."

The article continues and states:

_"Who is behind these strikes? Koryagina claims the U.S. is painting a false picture. She said the operation was not the work of 19 terrorists but a larger group seeking to reshape the world. She claimed a group of extremely powerful private persons, with total assets of about $300 trillion, intends to legalize its power and to become the new world government. The Sept. 11 strikes showed that this group is afraid of nothing -- human lives have zero value for them."_ [20]

The more information we gather, the more you'll begin to figure out who those "extremely powerful persons" are. Let's go back to the money pit for another dose of reality.

U.S. taxpayers finance approximately 20% of the IMF's budget.

Guess what, Ireland. Brian Lenihan and Brian Cowen just sold you down the IMF river. Why? To bail out bank bondholders and giant European banks. Of course! That's what governments are for these days, apparently. And they'll tell you that the bailout policy is all for you own good...Yep, another nation made IMF debt slaves on behalf of the international banking cartels. And Goldman Sachs and [Company] are on the list. So where do these wealthy bond holders live and work?

• _Germany has the most with 15 of the bondholders. Who hold 5.3 trillion euros_

• _France is next with 10 bondholders. Who have about 4 trillion_

• _Britain is third with 9 who have around 3 trillion_

• _The Swiss have 6 but who have about 8.5 trillion_

• _America has only three and hold only a trillion._ [21]

So there are two names you've already seen a few times - Goldman Sachs and Rothschild _._ They have been affiliated and recognized by conspiracy theorists as part of a network of elite who throughout history, have planned, executed and controlled the entire globe.

In 1992, Dr John Coleman published Conspirators' Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300. With laudable scholarship and meticulous research, Dr Coleman identifies the players and carefully details the Illuminati agenda of worldwide domination and control. On page 161 of the Conspirators Hierarchy, Dr Coleman accurately summarizes the intent and purpose of the Committee of 300 as follows:

"A One World Government and one-unit monetary system, under permanent non-elected hereditary oligarchists who self-select from among their numbers in the form of a feudal system as it was in the Middle Ages. In this One World entity, population will be limited by restrictions on the number of children per family, diseases, wars, famines, until 1 billion people who are useful to the ruling class, in areas which will be strictly and clearly defined, remain as the total world population.

_There will be no middle class, only rulers and the servants. All laws will be uniform under a legal system of world courts practicing the same unified code of laws, backed up by a One World Government police force and a One World unified military to enforce laws in all former countries where no national boundaries shall exist. The system will be on the basis of a welfare state; those who are obedient and subservient to the One World Government will be rewarded with the means to live; those who are rebellious will simple be starved to death or be declared outlaws, thus a target for anyone who wishes to kill them. Privately owned firearms or weapons of any kind will be prohibited."_ [22]

Sound familiar? We've seen what life is like in a totalitarian state in books and movies that are currently categorized as science fiction. Soon enough they will be in the History section if things don't change.

Suggested Reading/Movie

The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins (2010)

Hunger Games (2012)

The Illuminati

They are, in essence, a cartel of international bankers and industrialists based in Western Europe and North America. The names of certain families persist over long periods of time. Some of the most important names are Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan, Lazard, Warburg, Schroder and Schiff.

The goal of the Illuminati is total control of the world. The only nations, which are holding out against their power, are some Islamic nations and China but this resistance is limited because the Illuminati have crushing economic power.

There are certain methods of subjugation and control, which are indispensable to this power. The first is, of course, complete control over all financial systems, all borrowing and lending. All banks, all building societies, all insurance companies have to be under their control. At the lowest level even the smallest bank will be forced to toe the line. At the highest level the World Bank decides the fate of countries. It is an interesting and amazing fact that both the Federal Reserve Bank and the Bank of England are controlled by these Illuminati dynasties, in spite of the names of these banks, which suggest that they are run for public benefit. It is said that both Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy wanted to change this system.

... _[T]he insertion of immigrant groups into countries_ _is a variation of [a] divides and rule process. Each group can be played off against the other._

... _[Their] use of front men in important positions_ _. Most of the Presidents of the USA fall into this category. Behind the opponent stands the man with real power, who has long been groomed for this position. Men like Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski and George Bush are in this category._

_Social engineering_ _. An easily manipulated rabble is what is required. Mixed population groups with weak morals, weak traditions, low educational standards and weak group willpower are the aim. Those with special aptitudes can be taken out and trained to serve the illuminati for technical purposes, security purposes or as part of the propaganda apparatus. The middle class will become surplus to requirements and will be reduced to relative poverty._

_Mockery and submission of the manners and morals of societies,_ _which show any resistance. Control of the media, the fashion industries and the education systems are essential components in this strategy... By these means of subversion societies and nations are conquered from within and open battle is usually not necessary._

_The conduct of unrelenting economic warfare_ _. This is the real war and continues even while the bombs are falling and the bullets are flying. The important part is the control of the enemy's economy after the conflict..._

_Control and exploitation of the standards of public health_ _. The sale of prescription drugs is a huge business generating mega profits. Medical operations and treatments can also be very profitable to big business. These extreme treatments have their place but are over-used for the sake of profit._

_Argument through defamation of character_ _. The factual debate is ignored while characters are defamed. This is usually a very effective technique as many human beings are very suggestible and seem reluctant to use their reasoning abilities. Thus a "smear campaign" can easily draw attention away from the facts._

_To conclude, it is growing increasingly evident that a world government is developing, and many would say that it is probably not bad thing, but few have asked for what purpose this "new world order" is created. Nor have they asked themselves what the consequences will be._ [23]

That's a lot of information to digest but we must consider it. How do we cope with this knowledge? We seek others of like mind that want to find a better way and who also seek the truth and we unite with them. We keep learning. We stay awake. We become vigilant with our choices. We stay in control of ourselves and we find alternatives to the status quo. You can't change the world, but you can change yourself.

There is an interesting book I recommend that sums up the theories, facts and the fears – and how to keep your wits about conspiracy theories. Somewhere in the pile of words and claims and fears – is a truth. Make it your mission to find yours.

" _Evil and invisible powers lie at the heart of every conspiracy theory, the tales too often delivered with half truths, outright fiction, and an absurd blend of historical and imaginary events. These wild assertions carry weight because, especially in advanced and industrialized cultures, they tap widespread anxiety over our potential loss of control and identity as individuals. They address the fears many of us harbour, and accounts of their existence, no matter how outlandish, are comforting to some degree._

I concluded that buying into these theories without exercising logic and reasoning is dangerous, because it diverts attention from concrete risks. Too many of us spend too much time wrestling with imaginative secret society-based explanations and not enough time probing the validity of false presumptions leading to catastrophic events...or have we forgotten those weapons of mass destruction? Instead of making gullible readers award of ACTUAL risks and providing a means of dealing with them, as conspiracy

_Authors claim to do, their tales aggravate a sense of helplessness while diminishing the ability to deal with serious social and political situations_."

**Suggested Reading** (above excerpt)

Shadow People: Inside History's Most Notorious Secret Societies (2006) John Lawrence Reynolds

Suggested Theme Song

Cult of Personality, Living Colour (1988)

It is through information, right, wrong or outlandish, that we learn how events relate to us on a personal and historical level. We seek this knowledge not to blame or condemn but to uncover, discover and move towards a better way for all people, not just the self-appointed few. Social conditioning and be un-conditioned but it takes a sharp, awake mind and an open heart to not only seek the truth, but to be willing to face it.

We've spent some time in the bank-bailout quagmire along with other topics and now it's time to connect a few dots. Governments determine the recipients of bailout monies and governments also decide where (or who) that money comes from. If a Government is going to hand money over to an entity it's going to want to be repaid, somehow.

Before we go any further, understand this; bailout monies come from you and me - and it is you, me and our families that will eventually pay the ultimate sacrifice to pay it all back.

US Federal Debt

_Gross Federal Debt is the total debt owed by the United States federal government. It comprises "debt held by the public" and "debt held by federal government accounts," such as IOUs owed to the Social Security trust fund. "Debt held by the public" includes debt actually held by the public and foreign governments, and also debt held by the Federal Reserve System, i.e., monetized as part of the monetary base_.[24]

To put these huge Federal debts into perspective let's look at it from a personal viewpoint. Imagine your own credit card maxed out. Unless there is an injection of extra money into your world (more than you're currently bringing in), you're never going to have the ability to pay the debt back.

So, where would extra money come from? Well, you would need to win the lottery, get a raise, get two jobs, get three jobs, sell your stuff, reduce overhead and cut spending so you can pay it back to your lenders. Or, you can walk away and never pay it back. That's called bankruptcy and once filed, creditors are advised there is no money forthcoming so they 'write-off' or 'bad-debt' what you owe. There are consequences – but you can research that on your own.

How would a country inject extra money into _their_ economies to pay back _their_ debts? They sell things, they collect IOU's, they cut overhead and expenses (government programs) and they go to Central Banks or other countries for a loan.

Let's go to one of my favourite go-to websites, howstuffworks.com to learn more.

_When we talk about to whom the U.S. government owes money, we're talking specifically about the_ _public debt_ _. This is debt that the "public" \-- including individuals, corporations, state and local governments and foreign governments – buys from the U.S. federal government in the form of U.S. Treasury securities, which are essentially government-backed IOUs [source: TreasuryDirect.gov ]. It's the go-to gauge for indebtedness, since it indicates how much cash the government gobbles up from external sources in order to fund itself._

In the United States, the (GDP) percentage has escalated rapidly from 36 percent in 2003 to 62 percent in 2010 [source: U.S. Government Accountability Office]. In other words, we're spending more than half of our national paycheck, the GDP, on debt obligations.

Here are a few of the U.S. debt obligations and the countries they owe as of 2010:

_Taiwan_ – _155 Billion_

_Brazil_ – _165 Billion_

_United Kingdom_ – _459 Billion_

_Japan_ – _865 Billion_

_China*_ – _884 Billion_

_U.S.A._ – _4.7 Trillion_

_*(From 2005-2010 China bought over 500 Billion worth of American Assets_ )

The largest U.S. creditor is itself and borrows from domestic investors, private citizens, the Federal Reserve and local and State governments. Oh, and it also borrowed from banks to the tune of 269 Billion and Pension Funds estimated at 706 Billion.[25]

Who owes who? Do the banks owe the government for the bailout money they received for the financial crisis they caused in 2008 or does the government owe the banks for the loans to cover government operating costs? Please let me know if you figure it out.

Let's not worry about who owes who – it doesn't matter. What matters is we come to the reasonable conclusion the U.S. Government owes a lot of money to a lot of different people, both foreign and domestic.

Aside from selling assets, borrowing more or raising taxes, a government's other option to inject extra cash into itself is to go to war. Keep in mind that war can be defined as _internal_ (within a country's own borders) or _external_ (against other Nations).

Global Finance and War

War brings wealth. War brings jobs. Consider the War on Drugs (internal), The War on Terror (external), World Wars (global) and the enormous systems they operate within. Let's think about that for a minute. You need people to orchestrate and fight a war. You need equipment to use during a war. You need a supply chain of people, food, transportation, weapons, prisons and ammunition. You also need allies if you want to win a war, whether foreign or domestic, internal or external.

Let's not confuse the meaning of the word 'ally'. An ally is not necessarily a friend. An ally is defined as a person, group or state that is joined in an association with another for a common purpose. You don't have to like your allies - you just have to want what they want (or make it look like you do).

The relationship between war and money is complex and each of the following three terms and definitions (thanks to encyclopedia2: the free dictionary), demonstrate how that relationship has changed over the past several decades.

The War Economy

Immediately after World War II, the imperialist countries—under the leadership of the USA—began preparing for a new world war by pursuing a "cold war" policy and forming aggressive military and political alliances directed against countries in the socialist community, the labor movement, the national liberation struggle of peoples, and other revolutionary forces of modern times. An arms race without precedent in history has come into being. The total annual sum of direct military spending throughout the world has increased from $120 billion in 1962 to more than $400 billion in 1977. While in the past the war economy developed appreciably immediately before and during wars, after

World War II the prolonged and intensive arms race has led to the formation of a permanently active, ramified military sector of the economy.

The boundaries of maximum development of the war economy are determined by the war economy potential of a country. The defense industry is a basic link in the war economy. Its nucleus is the armaments industry: the aerospace and nuclear industries, military shipbuilding, and the manufacture of military electronic products, armored equipment, ammunition, artillery, and small arms weaponry.

A dominant position in the war economy of modern capitalism is occupied by the USA, which produces approximately three-fourths of all the aircraft, missiles, artillery, and small arms and two-thirds of the warships (mid-1970's) produced in all NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries.

_West European NATO countries constitute the second major center of the capitalist war economy. The ruling circles in these countries try to expand the coordination of the war economy and to make it more effective. Integrative processes encompass the development and production of armaments_.[26]

Economic Warfare

Use of economic measures by governments engaged in international conflict. These may include export and import controls, shipping controls, trade agreements with neutral nations, and so on. Economic warfare among belligerents began with the blockade and interception of contraband. In World War II it was broadened to include economic pressure applied to neutral countries from which the enemy obtained its supplies. In the Cold War it often involved using measures such as an embargo to deny potential enemies goods that might contribute to their war-making ability.

_The defensive use in peacetime, as well as during a war, of any means by military and civilian agencies to maintain or expand the economic potential for war of a nation and its (probable) allies; and, conversely, the offensive use of any measure in peace or war to diminish or neutralize the economic potential for war of the (likely) enemy nation and its accomplices._ [27]

Military Industrial Complex

The Military-Industrial Complex is a phrase used to signify a comfortable relationship between parties that are charged to manage wars (the military, the presidential administration and congress) and companies that produce weapons and equipment for war (industry). To put it simply, the Military-Industrial Complex is described as an all-too friendly relationship that may develop between defense contractors and government forces, where both sides receive what they are perceivably looking for: a successful military engagement for warplanners and financial profit for those manning the corporate boardrooms. It can be viewed as a "war for profit" theory.

It is no secret that the defense industry profits most when a nation commits to a lengthy war overseas. As any military will spare no expense for victory, it only makes sense to tap the resources of the defense industry to accomplish the mission. A sort of pseudo-world dominance through the basic form of imperialism can be seen to be just as important to a military force as is protecting one's homeland.

The phrase Military-Industrial Complex was first utilized in an American report at the turn of the 20th Century. Outgoing United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his January 17, 1961 farewell address to the nation later immortalized "Military-Industrial Complex". In his speech, he cites the Military-Industrial Complex as a warning to the American people – to not let this establishment begin to dictate America's actions at

_home or abroad. The original usage appeared in the form of Military-Industrial Congressional Complex but later removed._ [28]

Suggested Reading

Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex, William D. Hartung (2012)

War is nothing new. We humans have been at it a very, very long time.

The financial, moral and political motivations that propel groups and countries to go to war will not be discussed here. We'll focus instead on the war economy as it relates to global finance.

War Economy Equals Money

At certain historical times and places, war can stimulate a national economy in the short term. During slack economic times, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s, military spending and war mobilization can increase capacity utilization, reduce unemployment (through conscription), and generally induce patriotic citizens to work harder for less compensation.

War also sometimes clears away outdated infrastructure and allows economy-wide rebuilding, generating long-term benefits (albeit at short-term costs). For example, after being set back by the two World Wars, French production grew faster after 1950 than before 1914.

Technological development often follows military necessity in wartime. Governments can coordinate research and development to produce technologies for war that also sometimes find civilian uses (such as radar in World War II). The layouts of European railroad networks were strongly influenced by strategic military considerations,

especially after Germany used railroads effectively to overwhelm French forces in 1870-71. In the 1990s, the GPS navigation system, created for U.S. military use, found wide commercial use.

The dozens of wars currently in progress worldwide form an arc from the Andes through Africa to the Middle East and Caucasus, to South and Southeast Asia. In some of the world's poorest countries, such as Sudan and Afghanistan, endemic warfare impedes economic development and produces grinding poverty, which in turn intensifies conflicts and fuels warfare.

_The role of war in the world economy is complex, yet pervasive. The shadow of war lies across economic history, influencing its pace and direction, and war continues to both shape economic developments and respond to them_. [29]

There is a 21st Century military superpower that has claimed the lead role across the globe (and spends more than any other Nation on its Military), and that role demands an astronomical price tag to keep afloat. (700 Billion/Year Defense Budget/2013)

The U.S. War Economy

Check out this passionate article from 2008 about the 21st Century status of the U.S. war economy.

Read Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes' "$3 Trillion War." They show how our government's deceitful leaders are secretly hiding the real long-term costs of the Iraq War, which was originally sold to the American taxpayer with a $50 billion price tag and funded out of oil revenues. But add in all the lifetime veterans' health benefits, equipment placement costs, increased homeland security and interest on new federal debt, and suddenly taxpayers got a $3 trillion war tab!

_Read Portfolio magazine's special report "The Pentagon's $1 Trillion Problem." The Pentagon's 2007 budget of $440 billion included $16 billion to operate and upgrade its financial system. Unfortunately the defense department has spent billions to fix its antiquated financial systems_ and] _still has no idea where its money goes."_ [[30]

Suggested Movie

Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Suggested Theme Song

Silver and Gold, City and Colour (2011)

I am going to add one more perspective that puts the truth of the U.S. war economy right where it belongs, on the table for discussion.

_Now, our government could take the same money that it invests in wars, and the much larger pile of money that it invests in the base military budget, and instead invest it elsewhere. We could cut the military by 85% and still have the world's largest. We could take some or all of that saved money and put it into infrastructure or green energy or education, each of which would produce more jobs and better paying jobs than the military. But there's a problem. Investing public money in a massive jobs program that doesn't slaughter lots of innocent human beings is Socialism. Slaughtering innocent human beings is something our politicians can stomach, but Socialism is simply beyond the pale. So it's kill people or crash the economy; pick your poison. You can hurt others or yourselves._ [31]

The Role of Military Personnel

Today, people from industrialized countries volunteer to become part of a paid military system.

Members become involved in their Nation's militaries for a variety of reasons; personal, altruistic, forced and financial. The U.S. Armed Forces provides a steady income, pension, world travel, medical benefits, paid training and paid education. There aren't many organizations in the private sector that can offer the average citizen anything close to long term job security these days. People have to eat and in an extremely volatile economy, any organization that can provide for their employees and their families on such a widespread scale will have a long line of anxious recruits.

Today, the Internet provides the platform for a variety of military branches to reach a diverse online population through marketing campaigns, advertisements and information pages such as www.military.com:

" _Every day that you serve, the military rewards you by providing you with housing, meals, vacation and much more._

If you decide to make the military your career, you will be eligible for retirement pay, including continued health benefits and on-base shopping privileges similar to those you enjoyed while on duty. For instance, a 20-year career in the service will often result in retirement in your late 30's. Considering that a typical enlisted retiree will receive over HALF-A-MILLION Dollars in retirement pay alone, a military pension is a great deal and you pay nothing into this it is all part of your rewards for serving!

Besides getting to see the world while serving your country, you will be eligible for "space available" (or Space A) military flights to almost anywhere in the world at no cost. In addition, you will be able to stay in lodging facilities at any military base and at world-class resorts that are specially created for military personnel, including the Shades of Green? near Walt Disney World and the Hale Koa Hotel on the beach of Waikiki. And that's not even mentioning the special military discounts and fare reductions offered by resorts and airlines all over the world.

_You will also experience great satisfaction from knowing that you have proudly done your part in carrying on a tradition of selfless service that dates back over 200 years. In addition you will be joining the ranks of famous veterans who have also served their country like: Mike Anderson (NFL), David Robinson (NBA), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Gene Hackman, Chuck Norris, Road Dogg Jesse James, Montel Williams, Shaggy, and Dennis Franz, just to name a few."_ [32]

The U.S. is not the only country who glorifies careers in the Military through marketing campaigns. Several other G20 Nations who are part of the new "Coalition of Global Forces" do the same.

As an aside, let me state I am extremely proud of my Father and many other members of my family who volunteered to serve in WW1 and WW2 to fight for the ideals of those periods in history. I am equally proud of my Brother who served in the Canadian Armed Forces as a peacekeeper during the Bosnian Genocide (100,000 people by 1995)[33] and others who were part of the peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the incomprehensible genocide of 1994 ( _800,000 people_ )[34].

I will never be able to realize the personal sacrifices they and so many others have made during every experience associated with an act of war. Those sacrifices are not only paid with the lost lives on both sides. The sacrifices are paid through living memories by way of psychological, emotional and physiological trauma.

_For five years, beginning in 2005, a service member died by suicide every 36 hours, according to a report by the Center for New American Security. And while it said it was "impossible," given the lack of data, to accurately determine the number of veterans that have killed themselves, the report said that the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that a veteran dies by suicide every 80 minutes._ [35]

Suggested Theme Song

Far From Home, Five Finger Death Punch (2009)

War economies are complicated machines fuelled by regular people who are used as puppets to carry out puppet _masters_ ' agendas. However, those same regular people are waking up to the truth behind the wars around the globe in the 21st Century and some of the veterans are fighting back.

A group of Military Veterans from the U.S. shares their message with others from a place of experience.

Veterans Against the War on Iraq

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) was founded in July 2004 at the annual convention of Veterans for Peace (VFP) in Boston to give a voice to the large number of active duty service people and veterans who are against this war, but are under various pressures to remain silent.

Our membership includes recent veterans and active duty servicemen and women who have served since September 11, 2001 in any branch of U.S. Military Service, National Guard, or Reserve.

_Why are veterans, active duty, and National Guardsmen and women opposed to the war in Iraq?_ [Resolutions against Afghanistan adopted in January 2009]

1. _The Iraq war is based on lies and deception._

2. _The Iraq war violates international law._

3. _Corporate profiteering is driving the war in Iraq._

4. _Overwhelming civilian casualties are a daily occurrence in Iraq._

5. _Soldiers have the right to refuse illegal war._

6. _Service members are facing serious health consequences..._

7. _The war in Iraq is tearing our families apart._

8. The Iraq war is robbing us of funding sorely needed here at home.

9. The war dehumanizes Iraqis and denies them their right to self-determination.

10. Our military is being exhausted by repeated deployments, involuntary extensions

Operation Recovery

_Service members who experience PTSD post traumatic stress disorder], TBI [traumatic brain injury], MST [military sexual trauma], and combat stress have the right to exit the traumatic situation and receive immediate support, and compensation. Too often, service members are forced to redeploy back into dangerous combat, or train in situations that re-traumatize them... Service members who are not physically or mentally healthy shall not be forced to deploy or continue service._[ [36]

Suggested Movies

Jarhead (2005) & Stop Loss (2008)

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan all but over, it's time to rebuild both Nations. As a first example, Iraq needed to generate income to pay for the rebuild so the Iraqi Government auctioned off oil fields to the highest bidders. Welcome back U.S.A. This time the Americans will carry oil-drilling equipment, not arms.

[June 2011] The American oil services companies, which have been in Iraq for years on contract with the United States occupation authorities and military, are expanding their presence even as the American military prepares to pull out.

_For example, Halliburton_ [37] _, once led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, has 600 employees in Iraq today and said in a statement that it intended to hire several hundred more before the end of the year. "We continue to win significant contracts in Iraq, and are investing heavily in our infrastructure," Halliburton said._

The 11 contracts Iraq signed with oil majors, including the six for the largest fields, are intended to raise Iraqi output from about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day now to 12 million barrels daily in 2017. Some of the oil services contracts are for repairing currently productive fields, others to tap mostly unused sites.

_It is] estimated that about half of the $150 billion the international majors are expected to invest at Iraqi oil fields over the next decade would go to drilling subcontractors — most of it to the big four operators, which all have ties to the Texas oil industry._[ [38]

Many writings about the New World Order warn about the second in command, not the puppeteer President who is the most powerful. Dick Cheney played a part in waging war against Iraq and has since reaped the rewards of long-term 're-build' contracts in the Region ever since.

The War on Afghanistan

Unlike Iraq, the wealth of Afghanistan is not found in oil reserves beneath the earth's surface; it's found in the minerals deep with her core. However, the cost of getting to those minerals has been paid by massive civilian and Coalition Forces deaths. And now that the road has been cleared, the money begins to pour in.

[November 2011] _Afghanistan will remain the world's biggest recipient of foreign aid for years to come, World Bank forecasts indicate._

Kabul/Delhi: The army and police force being built up in Afghanistan to keep the Taliban at bay after western combat troops leave in 2014 will impose crippling costs on the country's finances, leaving foreign donors with an annual $7.2bn bill for at least the next decade, World Bank forecasts show.

The bleak outlook assumes that massive copper and iron mines will be developed, that insecurity will be no worse than today's high levels and that the country will enjoy several drought-free years of high agricultural output.

_The $7.2bn (£4.6bn) annual shortfall, averaged out over the next decade, means Afghanistan will remain the world's biggest recipient of foreign aid for years to come._ [39]

You may be interested in the following report about the impact of all that money:

[October 2011] _The billions of aid dollars invested over the past 10 years have not produced the intended results. As of this January, an estimated $286.4bn had been invested in Afghanistan since the invasion – that's $9,426 per head of population. Despite this spending, the country remains hugely dependent on aid, with many Afghans living on less than $1 a day._

_Afghanistan houses rich seams of copper, iron, gold, lithium and rare earth deposits worth up to $3 trillion, according to the Afghan government. Unsurprisingly, the government and international community are eager to see these resources exploited. The plan is to sell off rights to access many of the country's mineral deposits over the next three years in the run up to transition in 2014 – potentially releasing a vast amount of revenue for the Afghan economy._ [40]

How 9/11 Set the Stage

Ok, so the world supported the invasion of Afghanistan because of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. Bush and Cheney convinced us that Osama Bin Laden's Taliban Terrorists were responsible for the atrocities against American Citizens on American soil to justify the invasion. Just as they justified the war on Iraq a few years earlier to uncover weapons of mass destruction that threatened the free world (cough).

I will not go into the events of 9/11 as there are enough resources and other materials available for those who seek the truth about it, financial and otherwise. However, I will suggest two documentaries by Michael Moore that capture the motives behind 9/11 and the financial collapse. You can draw your own conclusions.

Suggested Movies

Fahrenheit 911 (2004)

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Suggested Theme Song

Where is the Love, Black Eyes Peas (2003)

With the Middle East's future oil wealth all but locked up, natural resource exploitation is aimed at Africa and Dick Cheney is one of the first in line for his piece of the pie.

[December 2010] Nigeria's anti-corruption police said today that they will charge former US vice-president Dick Cheney over a $180m bribery case involving energy firm Halliburton. The announcement follows a probe into the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in the conflict-ridden Niger Delta.

Halliburton's top official in Nigeria has been summoned and 10 of its Nigerian and expat staff detained for questioning after a raid on the company's office in Lagos. Cheney was head of Halliburton before becoming George W Bush's vice-president in 2001.

"We are filing charges against Cheney," said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), adding that the charges were likely to be brought next week. He declined to give any further details on what the charges were or where they would be filed.

_Houston-based engineering firm KBR, a former Halliburton unit, pleaded guilty last year to US charges that it paid $180m in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6bn in contracts for the Bonny Island Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in the Niger Delta.KBR and Halliburton reached a $579m settlement in America but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case._ [41]

I have dedicated an entire section to Global Finance and Africa, so consider that article as a brief introduction to how it's all connected.

For now let's wrap up the discussion on the wars in the Iraq/Afghanistan with a look at the human cost of them _._ There were many lives lost in the battle for oil in the Middle East – but Military causes always justify the means. Sacrifice a few to save the many. Or is that sacrifice a few to get the Oil? Hoo-rah.

Middle East Casualties

• Total number of violent civilian deaths recorded since the 2003 invasion has now exceeded 114,000

• Combining IBC civilian data with official Iraqi and US combatant death figures and data from the Iraqi War Logs released by WikiLeaks, the estimated documented death toll across all categories since March 2003 to be 162,000, of whom 79% were civilians

• Iraq's most deadly period of violence: 90% of the deaths occurred by 2009 [42]

As of May 29, 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,409 total [American] deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 31,928 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (Wikipedia)

Furthermore, no one has any idea how many civilians were killed in Afghanistan. The following is an excerpt from an interview with: _Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She has written several books, including_ _Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer_ and _Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power_.

" _The 2,000th U.S. soldier, whether it was this week or last June, is no more or less important than the first or the 17th or the 129th. And what's particularly left out in all of these counts is the scores of thousands—we don't know the numbers—of the number of Afghan civilians that have been killed in this war. Since the records began to be kept, which was not until 2007, we know that 12,996 civilians, Afghan civilians, have been counted by the U.S. military just in those last five years. The first six years were not even counted, including the massive carpet-bombing of Afghanistan that opened the war on October—beginning on October 7th of 2001._

_So we're faced with this massive level of casualties, giving rise to the kind of anger across society that is leading to these so-called "insider killings." The U.S. military, of course, has acknowledged that only about 25 percent of those killings actually have anything to do with a, quote, "Taliban infiltrator." The vast majority, they say, "We don't know, but it seems to be personal animosity, personal grudges." What seems clear is that the personal grudges are actually grudges against an illegal occupation that is widely despised throughout the region."_ [43]

With the world waking up to the truth behind the invasion and occupation in the Middle East (profit and the monopoly of natural resources), what happens when future soldiers refuse to commit crimes against humanity for wars waged by financial greed? Governments turn to non-human soldiers to execute their plans - they're called drones, and they are worth billions in industry profits.

Suggested Theme Song

Highway of Heroes, The Trews (2010)

Suggested Movie

The Tillman Story (2010)

Suggested Reading

Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong (2002)

Drones

Tom Engelhardt, fellow at The Nation Institute writes "first came professional war, then privatised war, then mercenary and outsourced war – all of which made war ever more remote from most Americans. Finally, both literally and figuratively, came remote war itself." Engelhardt maps the evolution of U.S. warfare from the professional war (post-Vietnam era when soldiers are no longer drafted but paid volunteers) to the privatized war (1990s when corporations become more involved in warfare) to the mercenary and outsourced war (post 9/11 era when for-profit industrial complex carries out military and intelligence responsibilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere) to the next phase, remote war (drone warfare carried out by machines).

Drone warfare is now the "linchpin of the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy in Central Asia — and one it is increasingly exporting to places such as Yemen and the Horn of Africa." While used in attacks, drones are also used for surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence. Until recently Drone warfare was one of the most secretive programs of the U.S. government, though it is now under the scrutiny of the media worldwide.

The New America Foundation claims that the U.S. has been responsible for 2,903 drone strikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region since 2004. Drone attacks have risen steadily since 2004, peaking in 2010. From 2004 - March 2012, an estimated 1,778- 2,764 deaths are attributed to U.S. Predator strikes in Pakistan, of those an estimated 1,485-2,293 were militants. The New America Foundation statistics are based on research of major world-wide media institutions, including Pakistani television reports. The numbers are not exact because after a drone attack, the militants quickly

_remove the dead and do not report the exact numbers in fear that it would make them look weak._ [44] See the full article here: www.globalization101.org

You may not be concerned about drone _warfare_ since it's reported as being used 'over there' and not 'over here'. However, early in 2013 we are now learning that drones are used against a Nation's _own_ people, aka those living in the 'not-so-free' world as well.

July 20, 2012 via CBC News

Before going ahead with plans to allow the widespread use of unmanned aircraft, or drones, in civilian airspace, lawmakers must do more to protect privacy and reduce the likelihood of sabotage, experts and members of the U.S. Congress told a House committee looking into the issue this week.

_Currently, there are about 200 unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, owned by 100_ _non-government_ _entities like law enforcement agencies and academic institutions, that have been authorized to fly in the U.S., Congressman Michael McCaul, said in his opening statement to the Homeland Security committee's subcommittee on oversight investigations, and management._

McCaul is the chairman of the subcommittee, which held a hearing Thursday on the government's plan to allow the use of non-military drones nationwide by 2015.

The Federal Aviation Administration has already started expanding the regulations governing the use of drones in national airspace.

To date, the drones had been limited to just a few restricted zones controlled by the military and those wishing to use them had to apply for special "certificates of authorization." But in May, the FAA began a three-year process of integrating drones into U.S. airspace by allowing police, firefighters and other civilian first-responders to fly UAVs that are no heavier than 11 kilograms.

The next step in the integration is to select six test sites where the FAA will test how safe it is for civilian drones to share airspace with other aircraft. The FAA estimates that about 10,000 non-military drones will be in use in the U.S. within five years.

But this growing interest in unmanned vehicles has raised concerns that the surveillance capabilities of drones could violate people's privacy or that the signals used to guide them could be hacked and the drones diverted to crash into infrastructure or other targets, particularly in heavily populated areas.

_Some have also worried that the increasing availability and affordability of drones makes them likely delivery systems for chemical or biological weapons or explosives._ [45]

Now that begs the question, how affordable are they?

_2012] For drone makers, the change in the law comes at a particularly good time. With the winding-down of the war in Afghanistan, where drones have been used to gather intelligence and fire missiles, these manufacturers have been awaiting lucrative new opportunities at home. The market for drones is valued at $5.9 billion and is expected to double in the next decade, according to industry figures. Drones can cost millions of dollars for the most sophisticated varieties to as little as $300 for one that can be piloted from an iPhone._[ [46]

Suggested Reading

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, Daniel Yergin (2008)

Suggested Theme Songs

A Thousand Suns (in entirety), Linkin Park (2010)

Global Finance and You

" _Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want."_ _Anna Lappe_

The price of goods and services include the cost of raw materials, manufacturing, marketing and labour. Sounds easy enough but we have to add profit in too. If there are middlemen in between the acquisition of raw materials, manufacturing and delivery we'll have to add in some profit for each. Don't forget to account for a price spike if the product is high on the demand list or a natural disaster, war or election occurs.

Global consumers continue to offer the world's providers of goods and services an endless funnel in which to shovel their stuff. Regardless of quality, price or impact on humans or the environment, we continue to purchase things that make them rich, make us ill, cause environmental devastation and drive us deeper into debt.

So far, a large percentage of industrialized citizens refuse to go through life without ego-driven needs and wants (entitlement) so we remain in the endless cycle of (we) demand, (they) supply, (we) owe and (they) profit. (IE: _Apple sold over 5 million iPhone5's in the first three days of offering and 100 million devices were upgraded in September 2012)_ [47].

Those in developed Nations are not the only ones who trigger the endless cycle of greed, supply and demand. The developing world's citizens who have recently (within the last 20-30 years) entered into a state of industrialization (Asia, Southeast Asia, Brazil, and South Africa) now pursue the _American and European Dream_ of financial prosperity and modern convenience, as well.

The dream of the accumulation of stuff provides the perception of a successful life and that means the global demand for everything increased. When demand goes up so does production. Subsequently, more suppliers jump in to get a piece of the pie. Where there are more suppliers there is more competition and less profit to go around. When there is less profit to go around manufacturers have to cut costs to make up the loss. Enter slave labour and sweat shops.

Sweat Shops

_Many corporations use contract-manufacturing firms to produce their goods. They separate themselves from the production of their goods and refuse to take responsibility for the conditions under which they are made. However, these companies actually dictate the labor standards of their suppliers. Corporations demand extremely low prices for merchandise. As a result, manufacturers, concerned with making a profit, cut employees' wages and compromise their safety. Foreign governments accommodate corporations, as well, by setting the minimum wage well below what is needed to meet basic needs, in order to boost national economic gain (Given, 1997). American companies get away with these types of business practices because the U.S. Labor Department requires only internal monitoring. Thus, there is no way to determine whether or not companies are honest about the conditions that they find. Unfortunately, even if violations of human rights are discovered, corporations are only held to negligible fines._ [48]

So, that's part of what global finance has to do with you. Every time we choose to purchase something from a company who exploits resources and/or people to make their products, we contribute to and perpetuate the cycle.

A wheel in motion can be difficult to halt but it can be done. It's called innovation. Innovation is the opposite of stagnation. When they say we can't reinvent the wheel, I say we can. We've done it before.

How do we become innovative enough to change the financial direction we've been travelling? It's like anything else. First we have to change the way we think - then we can change the way we act. If we understand everything we do has an effect on someone or something else – we just might change what we do and what we buy.

Companies with Ties to Sweatshops

Many U.S. retailers have ties to sweatshops, which are usually foreign owned and operated. Nike moved production out of the U.S. to Taiwan and South Korea when workers demanded better wages. When democracy took hold in these regions, Nike moved production to Indonesia, Vietnam, and China (Given, 1997). Nike's Indonesian factories commit numerous violations of human rights and health and safety standards. Workers are paid only $2.00 per day. They are forced to work with toxic glues and chemicals without adequate training, masks, and gloves (Morey, 2000). Nike agrees to pay employees' medical bills only after they havebeen paid in full by the workers who can't afford to do so. Fear is a common tactic to keep workers in line. Many are afraid to ask to use the bathroom, and women who are menstruating have to wear multiple sanitary pads and black clothing to hide blood stains (Morey, 2000). Workers also have to endure verbal abuse, 60-70 hour work weeks, and humiliation.

_Nike's internal monitoring does very little to help the employees' situation. Monitors fail to discover many problems in the sweatshops because managers know of visits ahead of time and clean up the facilities, and because monitors rarely talk to the workers. Nike also has facilities in Vietnam and China with similar conditions. Nike denied allegations of abuses in its factories for years, but finally in May of 1998 Nike announced its pledge to follow U.S. occupational health and safety standards, end child labor, and allow external monitoring of its facilities (Corporate Watch, 2000). However, recent attacks against workers at a_ _Korean-owned factory in Mexico that makes Nike clothing raises questions about their commitment (Global Exchange, 2001)._

Wal-Mart also promotes poor working conditions in factories. Facilities in China that produce clothing for the retailer pay their workers as low as $.13 an hour [thirteen cents]. Unfortunately, it is difficult to discover much about the practices in Wal-Mart factories because Wal-Mart refuses to disclose the names and locations of their

sweatshops (Co-op America, 2001). Thus, neither the U.S. government nor consumers are able to discern how bad the conditions really are.

The Gap produces clothing in six factories in Saipan. Although they use "Made in the USA" labels, they refuse to adhere to U.S. labor standards (Global Exchange, 2000). Indentured servitude, physical abuse and threats, and unsafe working conditions are among the violations in Gap factories in Saipan. In Russia, Gap factory workers are paid as little as $.11 per hour, and in Honduras Gap workers are forced to undergo mandatory pregnancy tests, work overtime, do not have access to locked bathrooms, and make $4.00 a day (Global Exchange, 2000). Although Gap claims to follow a "no sweat" code of conduct, it blatantly fails to do so.

_Disney has a number of suppliers in China who subject their employees to sweatshop conditions. Many of the factories require young women to pay "deposits" upon hire that put them in a situation of indentured servitude. Wages are low, and overtime is required in these factories. Workers do not receive health insurance even though it is required by Chinese law (Hong Kong Christian Industrial Commitee, 1999). Unfortunately, most of the young women who work in Disney's factories are unaware of their rights._ [49]

If, despite being exposed to the truth, people continue to contribute to the profitable bottom lines of these and many more organizations like them, that is and always has been a personal choice. At one time we could claim innocence. Prior to the internet, we were not exposed to this type of information. Now we are. Today, we can choose to remain ignorant and contribute to the problems, or we can choose to stop participating in the exacerbation of them. How? By simply by not spending our money on products made by companies who do not support the basic fundamentals of human rights.

There are loads of responsible organizations that are trying to find a better way to trade and provide goods/services across our global world. There are alternatives available to what we've been used to but we have to be willing to get up off the couch to find them.

We need to become committed and diligent about making choices that leave positive imprints, not negative ones.

Don't feel guilty about the past. Don't look behind – we're not going that way. We can only move forward, one change at a time.

Most of the sweatshops are currently located in Asia and Southeast Asia - two of the epicenters of recent economic booms. What happens when Africa becomes a developed continent and Corporations exploit African labour to produce NBA jerseys and Disney merchandise for under a dollar an hour?

Global Finance and Africa

More than $50 billion of foreign aid is given to African countries every year to address poverty on the continent. Although this may seem generous, and to some a solid strategy to treat Africa's ailments, Dambisa Moyo — a Zambian economist with a background that includes Harvard, Oxford and Goldman Sachs — says just the opposite.

_In a recent op-ed piece in the_ Wall Street Journal _, Moyo writes that although she isn't completely against humanitarian aid, she doesn't believe "charity-based aid" can provide long-term sustainable development for Africa. Her biggest issue is with "government-to-government aid," and funds from large monetary institutions like the World Bank. Moyo says the $60 trillion of this aid that's been given in the past 60 years is not working, evident from the fact that the number of Africans who live on less than $1 day has doubled in the last 20 years. And most foreign government aid, she argues, has been pocketed by corrupt politicians._ [50]

Suggested Reading

Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo (2009)

When charity is given on a large government and citizen sponsored scale most _givers_ eventually expect something in return. But the governments and good-willed, charity-giving citizens of the Free World couldn't possibly want anything from Africa in return for billions of charitable donations over the decades, could they? (Besides a tax-receipt, that is.)

Africa doesn't have anything of real value to the developed world does it? The Rwandan genocide (1994: estimated 800,000 mass-murder deaths) illustrated crimes against humanity are not a justifiable cause for a United Nations coalition of Forces. What might Africa have that the global world might want?

Africa currently sits on an enormous wealth of untouched natural resources which are still intact...for now. Perhaps it would not be surprising should the world's superpower's justify a military exercise to 'protect Africa' during the decades to come. Perhaps a new religious war, armed rebel groups or terrorist cells will emerge from the bowels of Africa once the Middle East issues, I mean resources, are put to rest.

Hell, they won't even have to create a conflict to justify moving in – they can simply bribe any corrupt governments in power with enough money to ensure the highest bidder gets the prize. Remember Dick Cheney's Halliburton we spoke of earlier? They've been causing trouble in Africa for years....

[Dick Cheney has] wriggled out of testifying on the Nigeria bribery scandal, and nobody has ever brought charges against him for the much-commented-on war profiteering in Iraq.

_If Halliburton and its shareholders lost money... not so Cheney. In the five years he worked at the company, he received $12.5m in salary. He also held $39m-worth of stock options when he quit the company in 2000 – a fortune for a man with no previous experience in running a multinational company. In addition, Halliburton's board of directors voted to award him early retirement when he quit his job, even though he was too young to qualify under his contract. That flexibility enabled him to leave with a retirement package, including stock and options, worth millions more than if he had simply resigned. Plus, Halliburton paid out Cheney an extra $1m during the time he served as vice-president._ [51]

And as a follow up to the Nigerian bribery charges, they were dropped.

[December 17, 2010] Nigeria has dropped charges against former US Vice-President Dick Cheney over a 1990s bribery scandal, anti-corruption officials say. The case focused on bribes paid by engineering firm KBR while it was a subsidiary of Halliburton, a firm headed by Mr Cheney at the time.

Nigerian officials said Halliburton agreed an out-of-court deal worth $250m (£160m). The firm has not commented.

Mr Cheney, who became vice-president in 2001, has always denied wrongdoing.

Femi Babafemi, of Nigeria's anti-corruption agency EFCC, said Halliburton had agreed to pay $250m "in lieu of prosecution". He said $130m of the money would be repatriated from foreign bank accounts.

AFP news agency reported that the money in foreign accounts was part of the bribery scheme, but had been frozen before it had reached Nigeria.

Halliburton, which split from KBR in 2007, has not commented on the deal but has insisted it has done nothing wrong.

According to earlier cases brought in the US, KBR executives paid more than $180m to Nigerian officials between 1994 and 2004 to secure about $6bn contracts for building a liquefied natural gas plant.

KBR was fined $402m by US authorities after pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges last year. In a separate civil case in the US, Halliburton and KBR agreed to pay $177m in forfeited profits, without admitting any wrongdoing.

The EFCC had been conducting its own investigations and last week filed 16 charges.

Its indictment named Mr. Cheney, who was boss of Halliburton before becoming vice-president to George W Bush in 2001, as well as the firm's chief executive David Lesar, and two other executives.

_It also filed charges against Halliburton as a company and four associated businesses. Last week Mr. Cheney's lawyer, Terence O'Donnell, said US investigators had "found no suggestion of any impropriety by Dick Cheney in his role of CEO of Halliburton"._ [52]

Natural resource exploitation will be one way that global finances will get siphoned to Africa. Training Africans how to do things the European/Western way is another.

Britain spends £2.4m training security forces of oppressive African countries

_September 2012]The British Government spent £2.4 million on training and support for military, police and security personnel of two oppressive African regimes over the last five years, official figures disclose. Dr Gebreil Fediel, a UK-based Sudanese exile who is set to challenge the legality of the British Government's relations with his native country in the High Court next month, voiced concerns about the help provided. "If it was and is the intention of the UK authorities to teach Sudan's police and security officers how to conduct these matters in a democratic manner, it has failed," he told the Guardian. "The brutality and genocidal activities of government of Sudan state organs against its own citizens is widely documented."_[ [53]

Is it me - or has history been here before? Africa has been subject to British ways for a very, very long time.

_The Royal African Company_ _was a slaving company set up by the Stuart family and London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration of 1660. It was led by James, Duke of York, Charles II's brother._

Originally known as the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, it was granted a monopoly over the English slave trade, by its charter issued in 1660.

_In the 1680s it was transporting about 5,000 slaves per year. Many were branded with the letters 'DY', after its chief, the Duke of York, who succeeded his brother on the throne in 1685, becoming James II. Other slaves were branded with the company's initials, RAC, on their chests. Between 1672 and 1689 it transported around 90,000-100,000 slaves. Its profits made a major contribution to the increase in the financial power of those who controlled London._ (Wikipedia)

Colonialism[54] is alive and well in the 21st Century. More on that subject in Volume 4: Attitudes and Opinions; Stereotypes and Changing our Mind.

Africa's leaders and citizens will grow to desire the same level of material status the rest of the world displays through mass media, so her stewards will sell her off piece by piece to the highest bidder to become part of the crowd. Africa is one of the last strongholds of the frontier. Sound familiar? If you're from North America, it should. If they can't steal it, they will buy it.

_The 20th century was an industrial age – the 21st century is becoming increasingly a biological one. Africa, with its natural wealth or "nature capital" residing in its ecosystems – from forests to coral reefs – can be a leading player on this multi-billion dollar stage. Africa urgently needs investment in hard infrastructure... But it equally needs investment in its soft infrastructure – in the ecosystem goods and services provided by nature...to unleash their huge economic and development potential for the benefit of the 800 million people in Africa today and for the generations to come._ [55]

If the powerful people within Africa's governments sell her resources off to other governments and other powerful people that is for Africa to decide. What the average citizen of the world **can do** is ensure the things we purchase have a positive as opposed to negative impact on any of her (Africa's) people.

Suggested Movie

Blood Diamond (2006)

African Diamond and Ivory Trade

Blood diamonds became a familiar term after the 2006 movie of the same title exposed the horrific conditions surrounding the precious gems being extracted from parts of Africa. Prior to that, most folks had no idea many of the coveted gems were paid for by blood.

Diamonds are supposed to be symbols of love, commitment, and joyful new beginnings. But for many people in diamond-rich countries, these sparkling stones are more a curse than a blessing. Too often, the world's diamond mines produce not only diamonds – but also civil wars, violence, human rights abuses, worker exploitation, environmental degradation, and unspeakable human suffering.

Not long ago, the public started to become aware that large numbers of diamonds are mined in violent and inhumane settings. Consumers are now demanding, with ever greater urgency, that their diamonds be free from bloodshed and human rights abuses. So far, however, the diamond industry's response has been woefully inadequate. Diamonds with violent histories are still being mined and allowed to enter the diamond supply, where they become indistinguishable from other gems. Violence, human rights abuses, and other injustices remain an everyday aspect of diamond mining.

Fueling Civil Wars

In just the past two decades, seven African countries have endured brutal civil conflicts fueled by diamonds: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Diamonds intensify civil wars by financing militaries and rebel militias. These groups also fight with each other to control diamond-rich territory. The tragic result is bloodshed, loss of life, and shocking human rights abuses – from rape to the use of child soldiers.

_Diamonds that fuel civil wars are often called "blood" or "conflict" diamonds. Although many diamond-fueled wars have now ended, conflict diamonds remain a serious problem. Civil conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire, the Central African Republic, and the DRC continue to this day. So far, the war in the DRC alone has cost more than 5 million lives. In addition, millions of people are dealing with the long-term consequences of these wars: friends and family members lost, lives shattered, and physical and emotional scars that will last generations._ [56]

Yesterday they were called blood diamonds. That is far too graphic for the diamond shopper to have to deal with, so they are currently called 'conflict diamonds'. No visual, no problem.

To add fuel to the fire, current [2012] headlines downplay the entire issue of how diamonds impact an entire continent and her people by putting a positive, financially beneficial spin on it. Is that the only thing that matters? How much money can be made? How much did you spend on your diamond? Watch for the connection...

[2012] Botswana, home to several mines that produce tens of thousands of carats of diamonds each year, has long partnered with De Beers. The two entities are joint owners of Debswana, Botswana's main mining enterprise. The agreement to transfer London's sorting operation to Gaborone was made in 2006, though it has seen several delays since then.

De Beers CEO Phillippe Mellier estimates that $6 billion worth of diamonds will now flow through Botswana. "It is extremely important because it's the first time we have had to move outside of London, where we have been doing business for the past 80 years," he said, according to the Xinhua news agency of China.

The move, he added, would "enable De Beers to sell aggregated production from its worldwide operations to sight-holders [bulk rough diamond purchasers] from our new base in Gaborone, transforming Botswana into a leading international diamond center."

Botswana today is not the only diamond producer in Africa, but it is the largest in terms of value. And unlike many surrounding countries, its precious gem trade is reportedly clean -- no "blood diamonds" here.

In neighboring Zimbabwe, by contrast, diamond profits are embezzled by state officials and used to prop up the corrupt regime of dictator Robert Mugabe. In West Africa, diamonds harvested from alluvial streams helped war criminal Charles Taylor to fund brutal guerrilla campaigns in Sierra Leone as well as in his native Liberia.

_Diamonds have also fueled conflicts in Angola, Côte d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo_.[57]

DeBeers has been in the leader in the diamond business for a very long time. And you may be interested to learn about some of those behind that history. Hold onto your hats....

The company was founded by Cecil Rhodes, who was financed by Alfred Beit and Rothschild. In 1927, Ernest Oppenheimer, a German Jewish immigrant to Britain who had earlier founded mining giant Anglo American plc with American financier J.P. Morgan, managed to wrest control of the empire, building and consolidating the company's global monopoly over the diamond industry until his retirement. During this time, he was involved in a number of controversies, including price fixing, antitrust behaviour and an allegation of not releasing industrial diamonds for the US war effort during World War II. (Wikipedia-DeBeers)

Imagine that. What a coincidence.

Suggested Theme Song

Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Paul Simon (1986)

You can follow the trail of diamonds on your own if this subject stirs your soul. De Beers and others have mines all over the world that exploit the land's indigenous people and compromise environmental stability. The truth is there but you'll have to change the way you think – and then change the way you act. If you don't like the truth around diamonds, you won't buy them. If you don't buy them, what happens?

The mines will stop digging, the people won't be exploited, the environment won't be compromised, the fraud will stop occurring on a multitude of levels, the smuggling won't exist, the guns won't be necessary, the profits won't be made and the money won't be spent. Sounds like a recipe for great change to me, and all you have to do is NOT buy something.

Next commodity up for discussion: ivory.

_TAIPEI, Taiwan_ _, July 5, 2006 (ENS) – Customs officers at Taiwan's Kaohsiung Harbor have seized more than two metric tons of illegal elephant ivory, valued at more than US$3.1 million. The ivory was found Tuesday in two shipments traveling to Manila, Philippines from the East African country of Tanzania._

The boxes contained 350 African elephant tusks, representing an estimated 175 dead elephants...

Both large and small tusks were found in the confiscated ivory shipments, indicating that they came from both young and old elephants. Singh said this signals that whole elephant family groups may have been killed.

_Singh says incidences of poaching and ivory seizures have increased noticeably since 2002, when the CITES member governments reopened the international ivory trade with a one-off sale of 60 metric tons of stockpiled ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa._ [58]

Suggested Theme Song

Fragile, Sting (1987)

You can say no to diamonds and say no to ivory - and say yes to products and organizations that promote humanitarian, fair and equitable trade...or not.

Fair Trade

Fair Trade is a different way of doing business. It's about making principles of fairness and decency mean something in the marketplace. It seeks to change the terms of trade for the products we buy - to ensure the farmers and artisans behind those products get a better deal [and are not exploited]. Most often this is understood to mean better prices for producers, but it often means longer-term and more meaningful trading relationships as well.

_For consumers and businesses, it's also about information. Fair Trade is a way for all of us to identify products that meet our values so we can make choices that have a positive impact on the world._ [59]

There are numerous benefits to participating in the fair trade culture of goods including its impact on the farmer/producer, consumer and the local environment.

_Small-scale farmers and workers:_ _Approximately 1.2 million workers and farmers in 58 developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America benefit from Fair Trade. Some of the benefits include:_

• _Increased power/ improved role in the trade of their produce_

• _Improved access to low or no-interest loans_

• _Technical assistance for building infrastructure to improve production_

• _Communications systems, collectively-owned transport and processing equipment_

• _Better health care and education_

• _Technical training and skill diversification for cooperative members and their families_

_Consumers:_ _The system benefits consumers by:_

• _Having the opportunity to buy in line with their principles_

• _Being empowered them to play their part in addressing global trade inequities_

• _Getting in exchange high quality products_

_Environment:_ _Fair Trade rewards and encourages farming and production practices that are environmentally sustainable. Producers are also encouraged to strive toward organic certification. Producers must:_

• _Protect the environment in which they work and live. This includes areas of natural water, virgin forest and other important land areas and dealing with problems of erosion and waste management._

• _Develop, implement and monitor an operations plan on their farming and techniques. This needs to reflect a balance between protecting the environment and good business results._

• _Follow national and international standards for the handling of chemicals. There is a list of chemicals, which they must not use._

• _Not, intentionally, use products, which include genetically, modified organisms (GMO). *_ _See Volume 2: Global Environmental Change_

• _Work out and monitor what affect their activities are having on the environment. Then they must make a plan of how they can lessen the impacts and keep checking that this plan is carried out._ [60]

While governments, mainstream organizations and mass corporations find ways to ignore or revoke environmental policies so they can speed up mass expansion, consumption and progress-for-profit, Fair Trade International attempts to inject environmental and human rights along the way.

Suggested Reading

No One's World, Charles A. Kupchan (2012)

Another effort to propel change surrounding the status quo of corporate consumption and greed for the chosen few occurred across the globe in 2011 and it became known as the Occupy Movement.

The Occupy Movement

Finances have everything to do with the conditions a person lives in within industrial, modern-day societies. How much (or little) money someone has and/or are capable of earning will determine their standard of living aka their _socio-economic status_ [61] _._

_2012] Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages are in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street._[ [62]

The movement, which began on Wall Street, eventually spread to cities and towns all over the world. Depending on the source, the occupy movement erupted in as few as 95 cities worldwide to over 1100 worldwide.

Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered direct action movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan's Financial District. OWS is part of a growing international movement fighting against neoliberal* economic practices, the crimes of Wall Street, government controlled by monied interests, and the resulting

_income inequality, unemployment, environmental destruction, and oppression of people at the front lines of the economic crisis. For more visit_ www.occupywallst.org

... _Global civil society is being threatened by a system based on power and not on human values. Day after day it represses basic freedoms and consistently favors the greed of the few over the needs of the many. This power finances wars, food and pharmaceutical monopolies, it sponsors dictatorial regimes across the globe, destroying environments, manipulating and censoring information flow and transparency_.... _The struggle for our rights as human beings underlies everything we have demanded in every square and every demonstration in this historic year of global change._ [63]

• _Neo-liberalism_ _has been imposed by powerful financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It is raging all over Latin America. The first clear example of neo-liberalism at work came in Chile (with thanks to University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman), after the CIA-supported coup against the popularly elected Allende regime in 1973. Other countries followed, with some of the worst effects in Mexico where wages declined 40 to 50% in the first year of NAFTA while the cost of living rose by 80%. Over 20,000 small and medium businesses have failed and more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises have been privatized in Mexico._ [64]

The Occupy Movement at one time had more critics than it did followers, and according to the press, the movement was deemed a failure one year after its launch. Within the news articles were common condemnations: no recognizable leadership, no agenda, unorganized, no policies, anti-capitalism hyperbole without action and division amongst its members.

In addition, the press focused on the percentage of protestors whom they identified as mentally ill, violent, homeless or otherwise undesirable. Squatters, as they were referred, were portrayed as nothing more than a nuisance in city parks worthy of police removal. That angle of reporting by the press further fuelled conspiracy theorists' suspicions of censorship through corporately owned media outlets – the very entity the protests were against.

The result was a general consensus among middle to upper class society that the Occupy Movement was simply a means for societies' uneducated, low income, down trodden and mentally ill to play victim. Furthermore, familiar statements surrounding the movement such as, " _if they spent as much time working for a living as they did bitching then they wouldn't be so unhappy_ " played out in the press, at backyard barbeques and throughout online forums.

I recommend you research this topic for the positive outcome of the Occupy Movement, not the press-perceived failures. Are multiple cities, countries and tens of thousands of _united_ global citizens (who are STILL (2013) attempting to bring awareness about corporate greed and corruption to the rest of the population) all irrelevant? Perhaps now that we've educated ourselves on the big global financial picture to a certain extent, we can look back at those who stood up in protest as being a little more willing than most to face the truth and actually do something about it.

One of the things you can do to protest corporate greed, banking power and corruption and mass consumption is to simply relinquish those credit cards you've grown accustomed to...or not.

Credit Card Debt

For an economy that largely relies on the consumers' capacity as well as readiness to spend, the credit card issue pertains to a much bigger problem of making sure that the financial system supplies adequate credit to help the economy carry on profitably.

_According to the Fed Reserve figures related to the total revolving debt carried by consumers, nearly 90 percent is card balances. While in 1988, the revolving debt figures stood at $177 billion; in 2008, they soared over five times to $977 billion._ [65]

Update: April 2013

_The latest G.19 Consumer Credit report from the Federal Reserve, shows that revolving consumer credit in the US grew at an annual rate of 1 percent in April to a total of $849.8 billion._ [66]

The headlines tell you we're in a state of recovery, that real estate is once again booming, that the auto manufacturers are turning profits and that consumer debt is down. They tell you there's job growth, job creation and that the markets have stabilized. Is your financial life stable?

Something's got to give. The global financial world has displayed cracks in the foundation, as you've already witnessed through bankrupted countries, states, towns and cities. When the foundation cracks, it doesn't take long before a major gust of wind blows the entire house down. Every one of us has a vested interest (no pun intended) in this house. It's where we live.

This article by the folks at nerdwallet.com illuminates the big picture:

Credit card debt is the third largest source of household indebtedness, averaging $15,587 per indebted household as of June 2012. Only the $13.5 trillion mortgage debt market, and the ~$1 trillion student loan debt market are larger.

_Indebted American households have a substantial amount of credit card debt: of the estimated 46.7% of households that carry a balance, the average debt is a whopping $15,325 as of July 2012._ [67]

And, although the general financial media reports a decline in household debt in the latter part of 2012, upon further investigation the decline actually comes from credit companies' bad debt write-offs - not because people stopped spending. In other words, they scrapped the debt that was never going to be repaid off the books – which makes it appear the overall debt per person has improved.

We make excuses for our high levels of personal debt from here to Timbuktu and we blame all kinds of outside sources for our declining financial prosperity. However, financial prosperity, or the pursuit of it, has only been about one thing: greed and ego.

Greed has driven humankind ever since we learned to take more than our fair share so we could be better, healthier, stronger or more powerful than those with less. One of man's earliest commodities was food - or the access to hunting grounds that provided food) and it sometimes it was worth going to war over. Modern man's commodity of choice is oil. Not only is it worth going to war over, it is the very thing that drives the entire globe on a daily basis as if it were the very lifeblood of our existence. But is it? Would we die without oil? No. But guaranteed we're going to become extinct because of our thirst for it.

Today we barely pay attention to the hundreds if not thousands of plant and animal species that have become extinct due to the expansion of 'progress'.

But what about the local cries from family members, friends and neighbours who are dying from diseases and conditions created by that progress - the contamination and destruction of our food, air and water supply? Are we paying attention or just throwing money at the contamination so someone else can find a solution? Some people call that contamination "cancer" and cancer has become a very lucrative industry. (See Volume 5: Health and Wellness)

As billions of dollars in donations pour in to cancer centers around the world to find a cure, every minute of every day we spew sewage, toxins, chemicals and radiation into our environments due to lifestyle choices.

That being said, global finance plays a very big role in the human condition of the 21st Century and will continue to play a large role in the evolution, growth and/or decline of our species as we move forward.

Global Finance and Population Growth

Around 10,000 years ago, something unprecedented occurred that altered the course of our evolution: we invented farming. This massive change in dietary, social and economic behavior, a cultural shift known as the Neolithic Revolution, shaped the future course of our own, and the earth's evolution in remarkable and unpredictable ways.

It resulted in anatomical, physiological and genetic changes that massively altered our evolution. Our domestication of plants and animals, and the large-scale clearing of land, altered the history of many others as well. It paved the way for a rise in infectious disease, and social changes such as occupational specialization, writing, standing armies and empires, long distance trade, money and markets.

_But the most profound shift of all was an explosion in human population, the result of greatly improved food security resulting in a dramatic lowering of infant and childhood mortality._ [68]

At the beginning of Volume 1 I suggested a book called Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn to provide some context to this diary of the 21st Century. Ishmael is a book of fiction, but contains accurate historical references surrounding the evolution of man. In it, the lead character describes the catalyst that changed man's relationship with his natural environment, which was; the beginning of the end of our species occurred once we began to lock up food.

Even though the world population growth rate has slowed from 2.1 percent per year in the late 1960s to 1.2 percent today, the size of the world's population has continued to increase—from 5 billion in 1987 to 6 billion in 1999, and to 7 billion in 2011.

The sixth billion and seventh billion were each added in record time—only 12 years. If the 2.1 percent growth rate from the 1960s had held steady, world population would be 8.7 billion today. It is entirely possible that the 8th billion will be added in 12 years as well, placing us squarely in the middle of history's most rapid population expansion.

This prospect seems to run counter to the prevailing belief that concern over population growth is a thing of the past, and that today's "population problem" is that birth rates are too low, not too high. In fact, there is some truth to that notion, depending on the region or country one is talking about.

_Today, most population growth is concentrated in the world's poorest countries—and within the poorest regions of those countries._ [69]

How is it that possible? How can the poorest countries be fueling the population explosion?

Here is a statistic put out by the International Monetary Fund. Remember them? According to the IMF, these are the ten poorest countries in the world as of June 2011:

1. The Democratic Republic of Congo

2. Zimbabwe

3. Liberia

4. Burundi

5. Somalia

6. Eritrea

7. Central African Republic

8. Niger

9. Sierra Leone

_10. Afghanistan_ [70]

The poorest countries are not industrialized. They do not subscribe to mass forms of birth control. Their cultures are driven and controlled by men even more than the industrialized Nations are. Sexual assaults are not against the law. Infant mortality is high. The more children they have the better chance some will live long enough to contribute to the family home. The more children they have, the better the chance adults will be taken care of into old age.

• The **underdeveloped** nations have little money, food is scarce and reproduction is rising.

• The **developed** nations have lots of money, lots of food and reproduction is declining.

Take a look at the world population over a three hundred year period from a report issued by the World Bank in the year 2000.[71]

With the population on the rise in the developing world, there is lots of opportunity for the expansion of capitalism. And, a rising population has to eat, right?

Global Finance and Monsanto

Bill Gates claims that genetically modified (GM) crops will solve world hunger. He has recently paired up with Monsanto as their biggest shareholder. And thus began Gates proclamation that GM crops be used to feed the world.

GM crops have a high failure to yield, as reported by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2009.

Gates and Monsanto's experimental "drought-resistant" corn was a terrible disaster. These crops required more pesticides, water, and special seeds that countered the claim of lower cost approaches.

_Gates has complained that African organizations that work with multinational agricultural corporations like Monsanto have undermined those corporations' attempts to promote their GM crops through grassroots efforts._ [72]

There is a section on GMO's in Volume 2; Environmental Change that goes into the topic in depth. GMO's are not only used to feed hungry Nations across the globe. GMO's are used to feed the Western World as well. Where there is genetically modified food, there is genetically modified everything. Everything is connected.

[May 29, 2012] Barack Obama announced a plan that puts Monsanto, as well as other large agri-businesses, in charge of increasing food supplies to malnourished regions in Africa. The Grow Africa Partnership is a part of the Obama administration's plan to end hunger in Africa.

While $3 billion dollars in commitments have already been secured by Monsanto and it's peers, the local organic farmers in Africa have largely been left out of the program.

"I'm delighted to be here taking part in this conversation as I believe public and private sector commitment is necessary and able to support a transformation in African agriculture," said Monsanto Chairman, President and CEO Hugh Grant.

_Letting a company like Monsanto expand their reach globally is not only irresponsible, but it sets a dangerous precedent. The problem with letting any private company fund and develop agriculture is that their primary concern will be with their own bottom line, rather than food security. Simply put, their objective is not the fight against hunger, it's to make money._ [73]

Speaking of money, let's move on to Global Financial Aid next.

Suggested Theme Song

Money, Pink Floyd (1973)

Suggested Reading

The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption and the Control of the World's Food Supply, Marie-Monique Robin (2010)

Disaster Relief, Foreign Aid and Fraud

The world's charitable organizations donate enormous quantities of food, water, shelter and medications to Nations in need following a natural disaster or war. The World Bank and the IMF ensure there is a steady flow of financial aid, as do Nation Governments by donating products, services and cash.

Additionally, the members of the population who have a few dollars to spare send money by the bucket-full to help those less fortunate in times of crisis. Giving is a beautiful quality of being human.

However, the financial reality is no one really knows where all the money goes. Where there is lots of money there is opportunity for greed and fraud. Here are a few details from the fallout of Hurricane Katrina (2005) as an example:

• _Hurricane Katrina affected over 15 million people in different factors such as economy, evacuations, gas prices or drinking water._

• _Final death toll was at 1,836, primarily from Louisiana (1,577) and Mississippi (238)_

• _An estimated 80% of New Orleans was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places_

• _Hurricane Katrina caused $75 billion in estimated physical damages, but it is estimated that the total economic impact in Louisiana and Mississippi may exceed $110 billion, earning the title of costliest hurricane ever in US history._ [74]

As with all widespread emergencies, financial aid poured in by the BILLIONS.

The most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history has a complicated money trail.

First, donations. More than $4 billion sent in by individuals and corporations. Much of it already gone. Take the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund. Its given away most of its$130 million: $40 million to the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama; $30 million to colleges; $25 million to churches and synagogues.

The American Red Cross has pulled in $2 billion, and, despite worry from some volunteers a year ago that funds were wasted, the charity now says 90 percent of that money has been doled out: providing assistance to families, running shelters and meal trucks, and given to mental health services. "We helped 1.4 million families in Katrina, Rita and Wilma," says American Red Cross Interim President Jack McGuire. "In 2004, we only had to help 73."

Donations pale in comparison to government funding — $122 billion approved by Congress — eight times that for Hurricane Andrew, including FEMA funds for housing and trailers, medical needs, and that much-criticized hotel program. Recovery officials say the checks are just now reaching some victims.

_"We found an estimated $1 billion through February 2006 of fraudulent and improper payments related to the disasters, and this represents tens of thousands of people,"says Gregory Kutz of the Government Accountability Office_.[75]

Another article echo's the issue of fraud:

Major disasters and fraud frequently go hand in hand. It happened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Andrew's devastating sweep through Florida in 1992. People tried to cash in, falsely claiming to be victims.

"We found several dozen schemes. There are probably a lot more out there," says Gregory Kutz, a GAO investigator who has testified about Katrina fraud six times on Capitol Hill. "The real clever ones cover their trail and disappear and they'll never be caught."

GAO undercover investigators demonstrated how easy it was to cheat the system: Using phony names, Social Security numbers and addresses of damaged residences — such as the 13th floor of a two-story building — they still received several checks.

_While many people filed bogus claims, the growing roster of the accused goes beyond the usual con artists. It includes employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA] and the Army Corps of Engineers, other public officials, business owners, even temporary workers for the Red Cross._[ [76]

A portion of the human race is motivated by greed and will get what they want regardless of the collateral damage they inflict on others. Some pursue greed on a local level by cheating their family, friends and neighbours, local institutions, stores or insurance companies for cash or coveted items. Others pursue greed on a global large scale and are willing to take the lives of their own population (at least a percentage of them) to gain what they want. Those ruthless individuals are alive and well in the 21st Century, and they reside (and rule) in the Nations who continually dominate the headlines.

Foreign Aid to Africa and Afghanistan

The lion's share of foreign aid over the past several decades went to Africa. Most recently, the number one recipient of foreign aid is Afghanistan.

U.S. aid to Africa initially reached a peak in 1985, when global competition with the Soviet Union was at a high point. After the cold war ended, security assistance levels for Africa began to decline. In 1995, at the outset of the 104th Congress, substantial reductions in aid to Africa had been anticipated, as many questioned the importance of Africa to U.S. national security interests in the post-cold war era. As the debate went forward, however, congressional reports and bills emphasized U.S. humanitarian, economic, and other interests in Africa. Aid levels did fall, but gradually began to increase again in FY1997. U.S. assistance to Africa is reaching new highs due to a significant increase in health care sectors under the Global Health and Child Survival (GHCS) program.

The United States remained the world's largest bilateral donor, obligating approximately $53 billion: $38 billion in economic assistance and $15 billion in military assistance. By comparison, the United States obligated $34 billion and $15 billion, respectively, in 2009.

The $38 billion in obligated U.S. economic assistance went to 182 countries. Afghanistan received the most, approximately $5 billion, while Iceland received the least, just $83.

_Afghanistan remained the top recipient of total U.S. economic and military assistance—both obligations and disbursements—for a third consecutive year. Iraq had held the top spot from 2003 to 2007._ [77]

We have seen the misappropriation of charity dollars run rampant in the daily news from the United Way Scandal of the mid 1980's by its leader, to fake cancer patients who preyed on the goodwill of the compassionate ones, for cash.

Mr. Aramony, who led the United Way from 1970 to 1992, spent six years in a federal prison after he was convicted in 1995 on 23 counts of felony charges, including conspiracy, fraud and filing false tax returns.

_Revelations that he used United Way funds to pay for extramarital affairs — including a dalliance he began with a teenager soon after she graduated high school — embarrassed one of the nation's most respected charities. His actions moved scores of charitable organizations to review their business practices._ [78]

10 People Who Faked Cancer for Cash, Published on 5/23/2012 under Bizarre Medical Stories - by Beverly Jenkins

Regardless of whether the fraud was committed by a Nation to justify an act of war or by an individual to justify fat their thirst for a lavish lifestyle they haven't earned, the viral plea for dollars and support for the child soldiers of war-torn Africa in the fall of 2011 may have been the straw that broke the camel's back as far as blind trust from the masses.

Kony 2012

The Kony 2012 'cause' is a fascinating example of how the emotional triggers found in marketing tactics can generate millions of dollars of no-questions-asked handouts. The difference with Kony 2012 and every other mass charitable cause to date is this time not everyone was buying it. The suspicious ones asked tough questions – questions that pointed to an almost immediate (not hindsight) hint of a fraudulent agenda.

You can find the original Kony 2012 video on YouTube.

Here is a critique of the movement for consideration.

A week ago Invisible Children released a video that was immediately picked up and promoted by every corporate news and entertainment outlet till it went "viral". Kony 2012 allegedly "promote awareness" and contributes to the end of child soldiering in Africa. But is that really what it's about?

Is it, like the old Save Darfur war dance, another propaganda campaign to justify US intervention in Africa?

Thanks to relentless promotion by Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, ABC, CBS, celebrities and politicians of both corporate parties, along with right wing church groups and foundations, the Kony 2012 video has "gone viral." Viewed on YouTube more than a hundred million times by now, it paints a vivid and simple picture, clear enough, its narrator says, for a five year old.

Joseph Kony, the YouTube video tells us, is a bad guy in Uganda, a lawless warlord leading something called the Lord's Resistance Army, which kidnaps, enslaves and murders innocent children by the tens of thousands. Just why Kony does this is unclear, but we're told the Ugandan government would gladly shut him down and bring him to justice if only the US would provide the advanced weapons, sophisticated tracking gear, military training and the boots on the ground to help get it done. To make this happen, all that Kony 2012's promoters ask of us is to help spread "awareness" of Uganda's "invisible" child soldiers by facebooking, tweeting and repeating the Kony 2012 video, and by emailing influential politicians and the one-name celebrities like Oprah, Bono, Rhianna, Cosby and Lady Gaga (OK, Lady Gaga is two names) to whom they listen.

The Kony 2012 video aims to bring the criminal child-enslaving Ugandan warlord to justice by enlisting tens of millions of us little people in making Kony's name an odious household word around the planet, after which Washington DC will stretch forth its military arm to bring Kony, alive if possible, before the International Criminal Court for trial and punishment.

_Almost everything is wrong with this simple picture, from the missing histories and hidden motives of storytellers and players to false statements of processes and problems real and unreal on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact, Kony 2012 is not a search for justice. Kony 2012 is a corporate-style PR and military psy-ops campaign, a cynical hoax engineered to justify US and Western military intervention to control the incredibly lucrative oil, mineral, water and strategic resources of the heart of Africa. The video tells viewers not to study history, but to make it. Kony 2012 does not promote "awareness ". It relies on and promotes ignorance and smug racism._ [79]

It's time to leave the world of global finance and enter into the world of personal finance. I encourage you to keep learning beyond some of the events and topics I've captured here. The more we know, the more we'll grow as a collective community of global citizens, who I believe, have a deep desire to live in a world that is fair, safe and sustainable for all.

Personal Financial Change

" _We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much"  
_ **Ronald Reagan**

Overview

If you were to ask the average person if they would like to change their current financial reality for the better, most people would say yes.

Change is a verb. It's an action word. It's not a noun therefore it cannot occur without some form of engagement.

What if industrialized citizens used less, bought less, spent less, earned less, worked less, and consumed less?

Answer those questions, one at a time. What would be the worst-case scenario and best-case scenario for each?

If we simplify our wants, we will simplify our debt. Furthermore, if we have a healthier financial life, chances are we will also attain a healthier physical and emotional life. We don't have to be schooled in the subject of finance to see the connection between financial hardship and physical and emotional stress.

Do you ever wonder where our incessant need to acquire material possessions (even at the cost of our own peril) came from? Let's revisit history to find out.

The Quest for Materialism: The Manifest Destiny Mindset

_A section of the Manifest Destiny editorial reminded Americans that they were uniquely positioned to spread democracy throughout the world, and this concept clearly played a role in twentieth century American foreign policy. Many historians use the term "Manifest Destiny" to refer to the period in American history which was marked by rapid expansion "from sea to shining sea" through annexation of the Western half of the continent._ [80]

_The United States also] holds three territories: American Samoa and Guam in the Pacific Ocean and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea. Under International Law the United States and other nation-states may acquire additional territory in several ways, including occupation of territory that is not already a part of a state; conquest, where allowed by the international community; cession of land by another nation in a treaty; and accretion, or the growth of new land within a nation's existing boundaries._[ [81]

_Indeed, many settlers believed that God himself blessed the growth of the American nation. The Native Americans were considered heathens. By Christianizing the tribes, American missionaries believed they could save souls and they became among the first to cross the Mississippi River._ (See Volume 4: Attitudes and Behaviours: Changing Stereotypes for more)

Economic motives were paramount for others. The fur trade had been dominated by European trading companies since colonial times. German immigrant John Jacob Astor was one of the first American entrepreneurs to challenge the Europeans. He became a millionaire in the process.

The desire for more land brought aspiring homesteaders to the frontier. When gold was discovered in California in 1848, the number of migrants increased even more.

_At the heart of manifest destiny was the pervasive belief in American cultural and racial superiority. Native Americans had long been perceived as inferior, and efforts to "civilize" them had been widespread since the days of John Smith and Miles Standish. The Hispanics who ruled Texas and the lucrative ports of California were also seen as "backward."_ [82]

Manifest Destiny is not confined to the USA or a previous century. The doctrine has evolved and spread all over the world. The new word for the pursuit of more is: Entitlement - the 'right' to have it all.

Suggested Reading

The Irony of Manifest Destiny, William Pfaff (2010)

Suggested Theme Song

Mad World, Gary Jules (2001)

Now we know how current mass culture was created. It has been our agenda throughout many generations to pursue whatever we want even if it's at our own peril. Whether an individual poisons his/her body to feel better, goes into debt to buy stuff, or a Nation sacrifices its people to exert superiority over another Nation, it's all the same.

Maybe it's time we come up with a better agenda. Maybe we should attempt to accumulate the things that make us a better human being; like love, tolerance, kindness, patience and compassion. I wonder what the human race would be like if we swapped the time spent on the quest for material goods for time spent on the quest for soul-wealth instead. What type of world we would share then?

Financial Stress linked Physical & Emotional Stress

_The symptoms of an economic recession are experienced in homes lost to foreclosure, job losses due to outsourcing, business bankruptcies, dwindling retirement funds and frozen credit markets (loans are hard to get). But the recession has also led to a number of other symptoms that haven't been getting enough attention: head-aches, backaches, ulcers, increased blood pressure, depression and anxiety, just to name a few. Extended periods of stress can take their toll on physical, mental, and emotional health, compounding the difficulties that many low and moderate-income communities face during troubled economic times. As we think about ways to strengthen health and community development finance at the institutional level, we need to remember the impact that financial instability can have on health outcomes at the individual level._ [83]

Let's explore the financial-physical-emotional stress connection a little further.

• **Stress** : mental, emotional, or physical strain caused by anxiety or overwork. It may cause such symptoms as raised blood pressure or depression.

• **Depression** : a state of unhappiness or hopelessness

What's most alarming is the increased percentage of people turning to medications/pharmaceuticals/non-prescription substances to mask the physical and psychological symptoms of stress.

Financial Stress linked to Medication

[2008] The ongoing recession—and November's staggering loss of U.S. jobs—is enough to keep anyone up at night. If you've ever experienced stress-related insomnia, you probably know the basic sleep rules: Relax before bed, set a consistent schedule, and as you're lying awake at 3 a.m., try not to think about things that are bothering you.

But with the unstable economy, and jobs and retirement savings hanging in the balance, you also know that's easier said than done. Americans are more stressed about finances today than they were just six months ago and many are losing sleep over it. So is it really possible to push all that emotion aside at bedtime? Or is now the time to get help from a doctor or a sleeping pill?

_The progressive decline of the economy has been taking a physical and emotional toll on people across the country, according to a 2008 Stress in America survey released in October by the American Psychological Association_.

About half of the people polled said they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family's basic needs, and 80% say the economy is a significant source of stress (up from 66% in April). Women especially reported worries about money, job stability, housing costs, and health problems affecting their families.

_"If patients come to me and say that they just can't get their mind off these problems, then it's a perfectly appropriate time to use a sleep aid," Dr. Esther says._ [84]

Sleeping pills are substance we resort to when our minds won't rest from the burden of stress. The fact is people are consuming more medications than ever before to attempt to combat the stress they're experiencing due to a perceived financial hardship. They aren't keeping up. They don't have what everyone else has. They aren't saving enough for retirement. They lost their investments in the stock market. Etc.

• Can't fall asleep? Take a pill. Can't wake up? Take a pill or energy drink.

• Not eating a well-balanced meal? Take a pill or a supplement.

• Can't get an erection? Take a pill.

• Have indigestion? Take a pill.

• Have a hangover from too much alcohol? Take a pill.

People are medicating themselves to death. Long-term medication use takes its toll on the body. For every symptom it alleviates it creates another one somewhere else. Cause and effect. Everything is connected.

A steady diet of chemicals will lead to major health issues including cardiovascular events, hypertension, congestive heart failure, gastrointestinal attacks renal/kidney injury, cancer and skin sensitivities. (See Volume 4: Health and Wellness)

Taking better care of your financial house will pave the way to better health. Period.

Suggested Theme Song

Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Verve (1997)

Lifestyle and Debt

If you were to consider your lifestyle as it is at this very moment, are you happy? Are you emotionally and physically healthy? Do you love what you do work-wise? Does your profession match your own sense of ethics and integrity or is your job at odds with your values?

If you could do any job in the world without worrying about the pay cheque, what would you do?

Can you afford your current lifestyle? Would you consider changing your current lifestyle? How much of your income is dedicated to housing costs including all of the supporting bills and expenses? Do you have to use credit to make ends meet?

Here is where I turn you over to a personal finance specialist to get serious about making a plan to change your personal financial situation if it's not working for you. She is someone worthy of your time and her name is Gail Vaz-Oxlade.

Debt Free Forever: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life, Gail Vaz-Oxlade

Once upon a time borrowers had to have a good reason to use someone else's money. Lenders scrutinized requests for loans and borrowers had to sign over their first-borns.

_When credit became a commodity, like pig hocks and cornflakes, the focus moved from "granting" credit to "selling" credit and marketing efforts heated up. Pre-approved cards arrived in the mail, lines of credit became every man's tool, and the no-money-down mortgage was born_.

Fast forward to the collapse of the U.S. financial markets at the end of 2008 and the meltdown in the credit world all over the world. Now money is tougher to get – even for lenders – and everyone is tightening up their criteria. Borrowers watch helplessly as interest rates on their existing debt are bumped up by 2, 5, or even 10 percent. And lenders are putting their clients on notice: the good ol' days are gone. Times are tough and they're gonna get tougher.

Stop using your credit. It makes little sense to scrape together money for paying down your debt and then run out and rack up new charges. Freeze the cards, throw them behind the fridge or bury them. Remove the temptation.

_Times are tough. Just ask the record number of unemployed and all the folks who are up to their eyeballs in debt. But wishing it weren't so isn't going to do you a bit of good. Know that there is a way out. It won't be easy. But it's doable. And as long as you learn the lesson, maybe the pain, embarrassment and frustration will have been worth it._ [85]

If you have children, the benefit of being raised by stress-free parents might fuel the inspiration to change your current lifestyles. If the accumulation of 'stuff' defines your level of success or your happiness I urge you to reconsider your values, if not for you, then for them. Children want and need parents – engaged, mentally, emotionally and physically present parents. If most of your time is spent accumulating and worrying about money, how much time and what quality of time is left for them?

Financial Stress Absorbed by Children

You don't have to be broke, or going broke to be stressed out financially. Rich people get stressed out because they don't want to lose what they have. Middle class people get stressed out because they fear what they have won't be enough when they retire. Poor people stress out because they don't' have enough for the basic necessities of life like enough food or adequate shelter.

Financial stress is part of everyone's life these days: rich, poor or somewhere in between and it is affecting the planet's young inhabitants from one corner of the earth to the other.

_Research focused on the effects of stress on individuals has shown that stress leads to the release of cortisol. While a release of cortisol can be part of the body's natural reaction to stress, long-term exposure to cortisol has many negative health outcomes, such as insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes. In addition to these negative long-term health effects, cortisol release has also been shown to reduce some components of memory performance._ [86]

Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity within industrialized nations has become an epidemic. The elimination of fatty foods from school cafeterias and family refrigerators is only part of the solution. For any issue to be completely resolved, **the source of the issue** has to be eliminated. The young industrialized children who have poor eating habits are missing something...something that fatty foods are able to satisfy albeit temporarily.

Take away the fatty foods and they will find another 'something' that will satisfy their biological needs that will be equally, if not more harmful to them in the long run.

They don't need prescription medications in most cases and they don't need therapy. They need love, attention, fresh air, the ability to play and they need positive role models to inspire them to be all they can be. If their bodies were healthy, their minds would be and vice versa. Right now their minds and their bodies are both in peril.

• _Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years._

• _The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period._

• _In 2008, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese._

• _Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease._

• _Obese adolescents are more likely to have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for development of diabetes._

• _Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem._

• _Children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis._

• _Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for many types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gall bladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin's lymphoma_ [87]

The affects of our fast-paced culture, our contaminated environments, pre-packaged chemically induced food and beverages as well as the related stressors within the home have all contributed to a global childhood epidemic. The facts don't lie.

From Nation Governments' statistical data, notice the trend in the G20 Nations' children. We'll visit Canada first.

 [88]

Next we'll visit the U.S.A and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

_NOTE: Excludes pregnant women starting with 1971-74. Pregnancy status not available for 1963-65 and 1966-70. Data for 1963-65 are for children 6-11 years of age; data for 1966-70 are for adolescents 12-17 years of age, not 12-19 years._ [89]

Children do and become what they see, and this is what they saw in 2003:

Obesity Rates in Industrialized Nations

Of the 13 selected countries, the UK had the second highest percentage of persons aged 15 or over classified as obese in 2003 - 23 per cent. The highest percentage was in the United States where 31 per cent were classed as obese. In Japan, the country with lowest percentage of obese people, this figure was 3 per cent.[90]

An update from the World Health Organization, 2010:

• Worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980

• In 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. Of these over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese

• 65% of the world's population lives in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight

• More than 40 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2010.

• Obesity is preventable

If human obesity is a symptom of a body in pain and out of balance in the 21st Century, I would hazard to guess that ADHD is symptom of a human mind in pain and out of balance.

Have we forgotten our body is a sum of minerals and energy of the earth? What we do to the earth, we do to ourselves.

ADHD: The Billion Dollar Childhood Epidemic

Given the rise in ADHD diagnoses, it's not surprising that sales of the medications used to treat ADHD have nearly doubled over the past five years, from $3 billion in 2005 to $5.9 billion in 2009, according to IMS Health, a health care information and consulting company.

Is ADHD just a fad, the disease du jour of a society accustomed to medicating itself for every conceivable symptom? Or is it a serious condition that, like depression, is just beginning to be well understood?

Those who have the disorder have difficulty coping with complex environments and following tasks through to completion. Because of these symptoms, "people with ADHD are at increased risk of academic failure, substance abuse, depression, divorce, driving accidents, and other negative outcomes," notes Guilherme V. Polanczyk, PhD, an assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of São Paulo Medical School and an expert on ADHD. "People don't understand how debilitating ADHD can be," adds Dr. Faraone.

_And while most researchers believe that the disorder has a genetic component, they acknowledge that the context in which a child lives and goes to school may also contribute to ADHD symptoms. A 2005 WHO report on mental health, for instance, noted that the "diagnosis can be symptomatic of family dysfunction..._ [91]

These issues are not USA exclusive. These issues affect children across half of the globe and widespread pharmaceutical solutions have a generation of children either medicated or looking to become medicated to dull their pain of a world run amok. The other half of the world's children live in poverty, starvation or war ravaged environments where it is unlikely they will even get the opportunity to grow into adulthood.

Although the children from industrialized nations have more than enough 'goods' to survive are unlikely to experience the spoils of war in their own backyards, the over abundance of everything at their disposal may show them to an early grave as well.

They all deserve so much better.

Suggested Documentary

The Drugging of Our Children (2005)

Suggested Theme Song

Is Anybody Out There, K'naan, ft Nelly Furtado (2012)

Notes

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