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Globalisation:
The New Rulers
of the World
report by John Pilger
Journalist and filmmaker John
Pilger's recent documentary 'The New Rulers Of The World' was
broadcast on 18 July 2001. It investigates economic globalisation
and specifically its impact on one country - Indonesia.
We highly recommend that every
Muslim watches this programme - it shows in a very accessible
form why there is poverty in the world and the truth about globalisation
( i.e. imperialism ). Unfortunately due to its content its broadcast
will be restricted, for example no American television channel
will show it. We present here a glimpse of what the programme
contains, in the form of a few images and a few minutes of borrowed
audio. For more information on John Pilger and this documentary
please visit his web-site :
http://www.johnpilger.com
1:
Globalisation
"
The facts of globalisation are revealing, a small group
of powerful individuals are now richer than most of the
population of Africa just 200 giant corporations dominate
a quarter of the worlds economic activity: General Motors
is now bigger than Denmark, Ford is bigger than South Africa
..."
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2:
Corporate Takeover Of Indonesia
"
Sweatshops - workers are paid on average the equivalent
of 72 pence a day, about a dollar. According to the Indonesian
government that's just over half the living wage"
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"..
70 million live in extreme poverty .."
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"...
poor are markedly poorer while the very wealthy are becoming
staggeringly wealthy... a wedding of the Indonesian elite.."
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"
... less than 5 miles away is a labour camp that's home
to workers that make the famous brands we buy in the high
streets and the shopping malls - this is the human price
paid for our fashionable trainers,
our smart shirt and our designer label jeans..."
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"
...the dormitories are made from breeze blocks and packing
cases - when it rains, they flood, their are open sewers
and no clean running water..."
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"
The factory's may look modern but once you step inside you
feel the claustrophobia of the workers, working in temperatures
reaching 40 degrees centigrade, the sheer frenzy of their
production and you see their fatigue."
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"..
you work 24 hour shift with just a couple of breaks and
then two hours later you start another shift ... famous
brands produced here include Nike Reebok, Adidas and Gap"
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"the
great sweatshops and banks and luxury hotels in Indonesia
were built on the mass murder of as many as 1 million people
..."
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"..
secretly backed by the United States and Britain and by
western business leaders it brought to power
General Suharto ... within a year of the blood bath Indonesia's
economy was effectively redesigned in
America, giving the West access to vast mineral wealth,
markets and cheap labour, what President
Nixon called the greatest prize in Asia."
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3:
The New Rulers Of The World
"
The World Bank and the IMF were set up near the end of World
War II to rebuild the economies of Europe, later they began
offering loans to poor countries but only if they privatised
their economies
and allowed western corporations free access to their raw
materials and markets ..."
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4:
Debt Repayment
"
the conditions of the IMF's latest loan include a reduction
in subsides on certain fuel and food.
Half this mans monthly wage of less than 40 pounds goes
on medical treatment for his children who suffer from a
serious blood disorder, as prices go up he can not even
afford the special drugs that keep them alive.."
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"
Globalisation creates debts, and debts create misery, creates
unemployment, creates the crisis .."
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"...
in effect the money stolen by the Suharto family is being
repaid by us, by the children ..."
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© copyright John Pilger.
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