Internet website http://www.foundationwebsite.org, updated 23 October 2020. Books and articles on Planetary Management and other topics from Tucson, Arizona. Copyright © 1999-2020 Joseph George Caldwell. All rights reserved.
FALINTIL Marching. A photo by Ina Varella Bradridge, May 20, 2002, Dili, Timor-Leste. A fascinating photo of fiercely proud men. (Posted 23 October 2006.)
A Country Model for East Timor This article sketches an alternative development path for Timor-Leste. (1 May 2006, minor edits 13 July 2006.)
The Crisis of Democracy in East Timor After the spectacular failure of a concerted six-year effort to impose a modern market-oriented democracy on Timor-Leste, it is time to reconsider whether that type of society and government is right for this country. The fact that Portugal ruled it with a high degree of stability – and little environmental damage – for 450 years must be considered. Democracy is not the right country model for Timor-Leste. It is time to consider a different country model.(16 June 2006, updated 13 July 2006.)
On John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and Its Relevance to East Timor
The Confessions book, however, was quite another matter. For years, I have been writing that the activities of international development organizations have, overall, done nothing but greatly expand the amount of human poverty and misery on the planet. My view on this was based largely on the results of these programs, rather than on their expressed intent, which is to reduce human poverty and misery. In virtually every Third-World country that has accepted World Bank loans, there are vastly more people living in poverty and misery than there were sixty years ago, when the Word Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) started operation. It is patently obvious that the international loans are not working. They have not resulted in a good quality of life for the citizens of the recipient countries, and in many cases, they have caused severe environmental destruction (e.g., the building of large hydroelectric dams and the causing of massive environmental destruction, such as annihilation of wildlife, rivers, lakes, and forests).
John Perkins is author of the book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Plume, 2004, 2006). This book focuses on the fact that it is the intended and primary goal of international development loans to burden the recipient nations with massive debt, so that they become totally in thrall to the developed countries. This is accomplished by offering great riches to the recipient country’s leaders, and it is invariably accompanied by a tremendous increase in the amount of poverty and human misery for the great majority of the population. The tremendous human misery and environmental destruction caused by international development agencies is a direct consequence of the development aid, but it is of no consequence to the aid agencies, since their sole motivation is to increase wealth for the elite who control Western industrialized society.
(29 December 2006, updated 20 May 2007.)
