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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

Listen (real audio, 1 min 44 sec)
Download (shift-click) (215 Kb)

" 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 ..."

 

 

2: Corporate Takeover Of Indonesia

Listen (real audio, 14 min)
Download (shift-click) (1.7 Mb)

" 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"

".. 70 million live in extreme poverty .."

"... poor are markedly poorer while the very wealthy are becoming staggeringly wealthy... a wedding of the Indonesian elite.."

" ... 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..."

" ...the dormitories are made from breeze blocks and packing cases - when it rains, they flood, their are open sewers and no clean running water..."

" 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."

".. 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"

"the great sweatshops and banks and luxury hotels in Indonesia were built on the mass murder of as many as 1 million people ..."

".. 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."

 

 

3: The New Rulers Of The World

Listen (real audio, 5 mins 25 sec)
Download (shift-click) (666 Kb)

" 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 ..."

 

 

4: Debt Repayment

Listen (real audio, 2 mins)
Download (shift-click) (264 Kb)

" 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.."

" Globalisation creates debts, and debts create misery, creates unemployment, creates the crisis .."

"... in effect the money stolen by the Suharto family is being repaid by us, by the children ..."

© copyright John Pilger.

 

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