Chapter 26 – Colonialism and Neocolonialism in Africa

In this  chapter  Pieterse, writing in 1990, condemns the use by such as Oxfam of images of dying, fly infested and starving children in fund raising campaigns. This subject was first raised by Jorgen Lissner in 1981 in an influential article which condemned the use of images of starving black children in NGO fundraising materials. He accused aid agencies of stripping individual children of their dignity and presenting them to the western viewer as helpless objects isolated from any social or historical context – a racist distortion. The use of such pictures when fundraising for children’s charities at home was, however, considered unacceptable.

By 1990 the general assembly of European NGO’s adopted a code of conduct that instructed all aid agencies to refrain from using “pathetic images” or “images which fuel prejudice” in their depiction of the majority world. It affirmed that all future communications by international agencies must be based on core values of human dignity, respect and truthfulness. Despite this recent years have witnessed the return of the starving black child as a stock image in the fundraising communications of far too many aid agencies. In 2014 a formal accusation was  brought against Save the Children for using degrading images of children such as showing a number of  children in varying states of emaciation. No action was taken against them as, although NGO’s were encouraged to abide by the code, it was not mandatory.

NGO’s can continue to act as  merchants of misery misrepresenting the majority world and perpetuating their cycles of aid and despair, or they can act in solidarity with those movements around the world challenging the forces responsible for their oppression. Colonial images of helpless children awaiting salvation from the hands of western  donors have no place in the 21^st century and should be challenged when they appear.

Chapter 39 – Somalia

At the UN summit on terrorism in September 2015 President Obama and President Francois Hollande both called for regime change in Syria, which is the aim of the western backed rebellion. Mr Putin said “ They aren’t citizens of Syria and so should not be involved in choosing the leadership of another country”. Mr. Putin warned that the exceptionalist imperial doctrine of intervention in other nations affairs, in contravention of the UN’s founding charter had led to “tragic consequences and degradation rather than progress. I cannot help asking those who have caused this situation: do you realise now what you have done? But I am afraid the question will hang in the air, because policies based on self confidence and belief in one’s exceptionality and impunity have never been abandoned”.

Chapter 48 – Controlling Democracy

Sick of the stranglehold of big money on Congress, the May Day Political Action Committee has crowd-funded millions of dollars to fight  for electoral reform. Playing the wealthy at their own game, it will use citizen-funds to support the election campaigns of those politicians who commit to challenging the  corrupt rules that govern fund raising,which currently hand outsized clout to the extremely rich. The first of two fundraising days raised $1million in only 13 days; the second which ended on July 4, 2015 reached its $5 million target thanks to donations from over 50,000 people.  Lawrence Lessig a pioneering lawyer and thinker who founded May Day, argues that for as long as congress members spend most of their time raising money from a tiny elite in order to get elected, the country’s wealthiest one per cent will continue to exert enormous power. Without reform the public interest will continue to play second fiddle. The game plan is ambitious and long term and May Day hopes to help secure enough congress members to vote for root and branch reforms that lock big money out of politics for good.

Chapter 12 – Racism and Chemical warfare

In 2015  several millions still suffer from Agent Orange’s toxic legacy in Vietnam, as do tens of thousands in the USA. Tanya’s Vietnam veteran father was certified disabled following Agent Orange exposure and died of colon cancer in 2012. She, like many thousands of the children of Vietnam  veterans, is being denied compensation by the US government which refuses to recognize most of the defects that are passed on through paternal lines. Tanya, now 41, was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer after enduring four hip replacements, several skin cancer operations and a hysterectomy. She gets no help from the US government for her vast medical bills. “There are too many of us” she said. “It would be very expensive if we were   compensated. They took a “deny until you die” approach with the veterans. Now they are doing it with the second and third generations”.  In Vietnam forth generation victims are now being born.

Chapter 31 – South Africa

Namibian President  Hage Gottfried Geingob arrived in Havana in July 2015. He said “Giving the bonds of friendship uniting us with the government and people of Cuba, this  country had to be the first one (outside of Africa) I visited as the new President of Namibia”. Cuba’s extraordinary campaign against apartheid South Africa’s invasion of Angola in the 1980s led to Namibia’s independence.

Chapter 48 – Controlling Democracy

Brazil’s Supreme Court banned corporate contributions to political parties in July 2015. This follows a corruption scandal in which such financing was used by businesses to win lucrative contracts with state run oil company Petrobras. In the most recent presidential elections corporate financing represented well over 90% of the funding for leading candidates.

“The influence of economic power is turning the electoral process into a political game of marked cards, an odious pantomime that turns the voter into a puppet, crumbling citizenship and democracy”, said Justice Rosa Weber. Chile has similar legislation.

Chapter 9 – Racism in the USA

The US State of Virginia agreed in 2015 to compensate victims who were forcibly sterilized by state officials decades ago under a eugenics program. The Virginia General Assembly budgeted $400,000 to compensate them at a rate of $25,000 (£16,000) each. Eighty seven year old Lewis Reynolds was among more than 7,000  Virginians forcibly sterilized between 1924 and 1979 under the barbaric provisions of the Virginia Eugenical Sterilisation Act. “I think they done me wrong” he said. “I couldn’t have a family like everybody else does. They took my rights away”. This act became a model for similar legislation around the country and the world including Nazi Germany. Nationwide 65,000 US citizens were sterilized in 33 US states including more than 20,000 in California. Virginia is only the second state to approve compensation for victims. North Carolina approved payments of $50,000 (£32,000) for each victim in 2013. Only 11 victims of Virginia’s act are still alive. The Virginia sterilisations were performed in six state institutions including what is now known as Central Virginia Training Institute in Lynchburgh. When Mr Reynolds was sterilized there it was called the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble Minded. Mr Reynolds was presumed to have epilepsy. As it turned out , he was exhibiting temporary symptoms which arose from having  been hit on the head with a rock. The Virginia law was upheld in 1927 by the Supreme Court by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who famously declared “three generations of imbeciles are enough”.

Chapter 25 – Latin America in the 21st century

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced that a citizen led process would begin in September 2015 to create a new constitution. “We will begin a process through dialogues, debate, consultations and councils that will lead to the new fundamental, fully democratic and civic charter that we all deserve she said in a broadcast on state radio and television. The current constitution dates from1981, being imposed by Pinochet’s regime, and was designed to favour right wing parties and frustrate democracy. It has been hard to get rid of it as a 75% majority is required to overturn it but it seems that its days are numbered. She also announced that businesses will no longer be allowed to contribute to political parties which will now be state financed.

Chapter 27 – Zaire / Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Senate committed on assassinations led by Senator Church heard from several officials that the order to murder Lumumba came originally from Eisenhower and concluded that there was “reasonable inference” that this was so. The evidence that Eisenhower wanted Lumumba dead is overwhelming. “The President did want a man whom he regarded as did lots of others, myself included, as a thorough scoundrel and a very dangerous man got rid of” Bissell said later in an oral-history interview for the Eisenhower presidential library. “I have not the slightest doubt that he wanted Lumumba got rid of and he wanted it badly and promptly, as a matter of urgency and of very great importance. Alan’s  (Dulles} cable reflected that sense of urgency and priority”. Richard Bissell was the CIA’s director of plans and worked under Dulles. NSC secretary Robert Johnson’s testimony on Eisenhower’s order to kill Lumumba at the NSC meeting on August 18, 1960 and Devlin’s quoted testimony on his orders coming from “the President” were given to investigators of the Church committee. Devlin testified on August 25, 1975; Johnson testified on June 18 and September 13, 1975.

Chapter 37 – South Africa

South Africa and the IMF.

In 2001 George Soros told the World Economic Forum in Davos “South Africa is in the hands of international capital”. With democratic elections in 1994 racial apartheid ended and economic apartheid began. A new black middle class emerged and moved into gated estates near golf courses. Disparities between these blacks and whites narrowed but increased between black and black. The corporations which had supported apartheid found blacks “they could do business with” who were well rewarded, and little changed.