FILM: Confessions of an Economic Hitman

DURATION: 45 Minutes followed by discussion

DATE: Wednesday 28 March 2018

TIME: 12h30 - 14h00

VENUE: CCS Seminar Room A726, Level 7, Shepstone, Howard College, UKZN

 

An exposé by self-confessed economic hit man, John Perkins whose job was to convince the political and financial leadership of “underdeveloped countries” to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the IMF, World Bank and USAID to destabilize and control them politically and economically. 

 

Saddled with debts they could not ever to repay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the “developed countries”, effectively relinquishing their sovereignty and democracy, increasing corruption and cronyism, economic inequality and injustice, human rights violation and repression.

 

Perkins describes the role of Economic Hit Man (EHM) as highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the IMF, World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the world and its resources.  Their tools included fraudulent financial outflows, tax evasion, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, bribery, corruption and murder.

 

“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.” John Adams, former US president.

 

“Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa. It is a reconquest that turns each one of us into a financial slave.” Thomas Sankara, Burkino Faso’s first democratic president, speaking at an OAU summit, 1987, 1 month before he was assassinated.