Amy Chua definitely takes you down the rabbit hole in her national best seller "World On Fire." She makes a convincing case that globalization (a.k.a free market democracy) is one of the main causes of racial, ethnic and religious strife in the world today. She argues that the free market system has become an insalubrious mess, metastasizing into forms of economic strangulation, hegemony and fascism, and all the while causing starvation and antagonism in third-world nation states. In most cases the symptoms caused are egregious in nature for the sole purpose of profiteering.
In the book Chua explains that in most cases the rich minorities take advantage and exploit the downtrodden indigenous majority, and that the rich are usually from other countries.
Such is the case in the Philippines, with the Chinese minority controlling most of the wealth in that country. Chua also points out that the Chinese minority has controlling interest in Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, and other South-East Asian States. But, the U.S. has interest in these countries as well. Also, the U.S. imports precious gems, oil, natural gas, narcotics and teak wood, which come at a heavy price, and that price is human life.
Many people are killed for these commodities, such as the Karen people in Burma who are slaughter by the State Peace and Development Council (SPCD.) The SPCD are also working in conduit with members of the corporatocracy to procure commodities that are on Karen lands. Plus, we must not forget that the Suharto regime in Indonesia nearly committed genocide in East Timor, during the Gerald Ford administration and beyond.
Chua also writes about the seven most powerful oligarchs in Russia, which she points out that six of these oligarchs just happened to be Jewish. She also writes about how these oligarchs supported Vladimir Putin during his presidential run, but as soon as he was elected he turned on them, and started to confiscate their property because they were draining and exploiting the Russian economy. The Russian citizenry were being disenfranchised according to Putin, and with alacrity, Putin managed to shut down television and radio networks, while arresting people. As a matter of fact, Putin turned on "Jewish media moguls Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky in a murky corporate coup in 2001."
According to Chua, Putin made promises to the Russian people that he would "bring the house in order" and "move the oligarchs away from power." The western powers started to fear what Putin was doing and accused him of reverting back to the old Soviet Union style of governance, which was dichotomous to the free market way of life that Russia allegedly embraced after the Cold War ended. Furthermore, he was accused of being anti-Semitic, but there was no evidence to show this since Jewish immigrants have emigrated from Russia to Israel since the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. So, it wasn't a question of singling out Jews, it was about balancing the scales of the economy, creating a gemütlich environment for Russia...so they say... However, I am a little skeptical about this.
Amy Chua also engages on the subject of South African apartheid, and how the Oppenhiemers and Rhodes' De Beers Corporation dominated the diamond industry, while the white Afrikaners owned most of the land and controlled the government until the African National Congress and Mandela ascended to power. And De Beers is still exploiting and disenfranchising Africans. One case in particular is Namibia.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is another country under fire and Robert Mugabe is slowly trying to change the situation by incrementally usurping territory from the white minority that owns much of the land that he and his people feel they are not entitled to because of how they acquired it. Mugabe's methods are questionable, but the reasons may not be.
Moreover, The Ibo tribe in Angola dominates the wealth in that country. Angola suffered enormously because of the Portuguese onslaught during the Transatlantic Slave trade, and the remnants of that time period still reverberates to this day. Child slave labor is still practiced. Children are made to work in ungodly conditions, while being beaten, and abused in some instances. And that's just for starters.
Anyhow, globalization has led to democracy promotion, nation building, and more tax increases which means forced governance upon the general populace with sanguineous results in other countries. These are the real reasons why America goes to war overseas, while hemorrhaging trillions of dollars at a whim. Plus, having hundreds of military bases all over the world.
All the U.S. is doing is fighting wars and occupying other countries for the IMF, The World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, while the poor civilian populations around the world are being killed in the auspices of freedom and democracy, but the question remains... whose democracy are we fighting for? My guess is it's for the ones who can pay for it. The definition of all of this is fascism.
Amy Chua really makes you think about the world we live in and she's asking everyone to be cognizant of their surroundings in the hopes that we will change our behavior. America isn't the only country at fault as some have come to contemplate, but it is the world's leading superpower and it needs to take the reigns in solving these problems. The corporatocracy cannot continue negative business practices without the world community, and the environment paying the ultimate price.
Hate breeds more hate and greed depletes everything, what a great read and learning experience!!!
Five Stars!!!!
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Top reviews from other countries
LauraBalin
Take Income-Inequality add Majority Rule and Stir The Pot..... Et voila!
Reviewed in Germany on August 22, 2018
Marcus Ferrar
A good case, but sometimes overdone
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 8, 2014
