John Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

NEW BOOK: Democracy NOW Interview + 8 KEY FACTS

Dear Friends,

I'm excited to announce that my new book is out: HOODWINKED: Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and How to Remake Them. Below I've provided two things that serve as a primer to the book. First, is my interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. My conversation with Amy gave me an opportunity to set the stage for the work we all have ahead. Additionally, below, I have provided a detailed summary of eight key facts about HOODWINKED to support and inspire your contributions creating the change we need.

John Perkins Interview with Amy Goodman - Democracy NOW

 

8 KEY POINTS to Support Your Important Work: 

HOODWINKED provides the facts – and many personal stories from economic hit men, jackals, business execs, politicians, and educators – behind the following eight key points:

1. The United States.The US – in fact the world – has been stolen by the very wealthy and powerful, the corporatocracy.

2. Failed System. This has created a failed system – unsustainable, unjust, unstable, dangerous.

3. Predatory Capitalism. The cause is a mutant, viral form of capitalism – what I call “Predatory Capitalism” that began with President Reagan and the philosophy that a) the only goal of business is to make profits, b) corporations should not be regulated, and c) every major economic sector should be privatized. This virus has spread with each subsequent administration.

4. Mutant forms of Capitalism. 9/11 was a shock used by the Bush administration to boost this mutant form of capitalism to unprecedented new levels: privatize the military (and introduce privatized Homeland Security); further deregulate financial institutions; radically increase military budgets; and encourage shopping and excessive materialism.

5. The Crises We Really Need to Fear. The 9/11 shock distracted us from the crises we really need to fear: climate change, resources diminishing at accelerating rates, increasing prices for fuel, foods, and other essentials, violence that results from exploited people living desperate, starving lives, overpopulation, general environmental and social degradation. For the first time in history, every human being – every life form – is confronted by these same crises.

6. Countries and presidents have lost power. Corporations have the power. World geopolitics may be represented by huge clouds (the multinational companies) drifting around the planet; they know no borders and obey no specific sets of laws.

7.  The GOOD NEWS: we control corporations. The market place is democratic. The way out is for us the people to support companies that are committed to a sustainable, just, peaceful world; to institute regulations that codify this; to recognize as heroes men and women who are dedicated to creating a world our children and their brothers and sisters around the planet will want to inherit -- in essence to rid ourselves of the mutant virus and create a new type of capitalism.

8. We're in this TOGETHER. We are all in this together and we are all communicating with each other. The Internet and cell phones offer opportunities to unite us like never before in the human experience.

We the people must create the change.

I am encouraged by grassroots movements across this planet (described in HOODWINKED) and by the commitment of students on campuses in the US and throughout the world. Please read HOODWINKED, share it with your friends, and let’s together create a sustainable, just, and peaceful world.

I hope too that I will see you at one of the upcoming book signings – please see my website for the schedule of events – http://www.johnperkins.org .

John Perkins

Visit the John Perkins COLLECTIONat the Global Dialogue Center

Economic Meltdown Is Not a FLUKE

Dear friends,
 
This economic meltdown is not a fluke. 
It had to happen to shake us awake.
 
An economic system where less than 5% of the world’s population (us in the U.S.) consumes more than 25% of the resources is not a viable model. It can not be replicated in China, India, Africa, or Latin America.
 
It is a failure.
We must change it.
 
That is why I wrote my latest book HOODWINKED. It describes the deep underlying causes of the current crises and provides a blueprint for change, for creating a world our children will want to inherit.
 
HOODWINKED (Random House) will be in bookstores Nov 10, 2009, but I urge you to pre-order today. I truly hope this book will empower the change that needs to take place during this crisis. I know that many of you have been great supporters of all my work and I hope that you can assist me by sending this email to as many people as you can to help lift the visibility of the book. 
  
HOODWINKED is by far the most important book I have written and I look forward to sharing it with you. 
  
A more detailed description is below.

Join me at an UPCOMING EVENT...
I’m also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org as well as on my Facebook Fan Page, search John Perkins Author .
 
Many thanks and blessings,
 
John Perkins
Twitter - @economic_hitman

About HOODWINKED by John Perkins

HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
and What We Need to Do to Remake Them

By John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN

Order a YOUR COPY at Amazon.com
 

Former economic hit man John Perkins has experienced today’s economic collapse before. The banking industry and sub-prime mortgage fiascos, the rising tide of unemployment, and the shuttering of businesses are all too familiar in the Third World countries where he worked. He was both an observer and a perpetrator of events that have now sent the US – in fact the entire planet – spiraling toward disaster.

The real cause of our global financial meltdown is what Perkins calls predatory capitalism – the mutant form of an economic system that encourages widespread exploitation of the few to benefit a small number of already very wealthy people. A new geo-politics has emerged; today the CEOs of big corporations, rather than governments, control human and natural resources around the globe, as well as politicians and the media. Their arrogance, gluttony, and mismanagement have brought us to the perilous edge. The solutions will not be "return to normal ones".

There is a way out. “Unlike other empires,” Perkins says, “this one is not built primarily on the back of the military. It is subtle, market-based, and it depends on our voluntary choices. We hold the power –  if we only recognize it.” Hoodwinked provides a blueprint for creating an economy that fosters a sustainable, just, and peaceful world for us and our children. It offers concrete actions each and every one of us can take.

John Perkins is the bestselling author of the classic expose Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and an economist who has enjoyed a front-row seat to world events for the past four decades—as the Chief Economist of a major consulting firm and economic hit man for the American corporatocracy in the 1970s, CEO of an energy company in the 1980s, and founder of nonprofits in the 1990s and 2000s. He spent the past 5 years traveling across the US and to many other countries where he met with government and corporate leaders, spoke at universities and business conferences, dialogued with people from all walks of life, and gained invaluable insights into the underlying causes of the current crisis.  Now, in Hoodwinked, he shares those experiences, along with in-depth analysis, and the exciting stories about economic hit men, rogue politicians, and the secret world of CIA-sponsored jackals similar to ones readers thrilled to in Confessions.

Early Reviews of HOODWINKED

John Perkins has been in and out of the world of high finance and low ethics, and in HOODWINKED he not only illuminates that world with dramatic stories and keen insights, but suggests what we might do to create a better society. 

--- Howard Zinn
author, A People’s History of the United States
and retired professor of Political Science at Boston University

Another thriller from the master storyteller with an insider view. Perkins takes us once again into the dark nether world of corrupt bankers and economic hit men who lure the unsuspecting into financial ruin and reveals the connection between the folks who for decades enriched themselves at the expense of the world’s poor and those who now reap billions at the expense of America. Same people, same scams.

--- David Korten
author, Agenda for a New Economy and 
The Great Turning, and board chair of YES! magazine.

John Perkins' engaging narrative draws us into a brilliant analysis of capitalism's shadow side, and points us to a hopeful path to a better future. Hoodwinked is a must-read for anyone who cares about our economic welfare, social justice, and our collective well-being.

--- Daniel Goleman
author, Ecological Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence

John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center

Latin America Strikes Back

Dear Friends,

We may feel hoodwinked by the big US banks, but the Latin Americans are striking back!

On September 26, seven presidents signed the document officially starting the Bank of the South. Opening with $7 billion in capital that is expected to grow to $20 billion in coming months, the bank’s objective is to finance development projects in agriculture, energy, and health care for member nations and to boost trade throughout the hemisphere.

To a large degree this bank will replace the World Bank, IMF, USAID, and other “development” organizations that have been used by economic hit men to enrich the corporatocracy and gain control over Third World resources.

The presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela signed the document during the historic Africa-South America Summit held in Venezuela following the 2009 meetings opening the United Nations in New York.

“This is historic for the true independence of Latin America,” Ecuador’s president Correa said. “We’re done depending on the North for, on the one hand, kneeling down to ask for some dollars and, on the other, sending billions of dollars to them. We’ve had enough of that contradiction.”

As detailed in my new book, HOODWINKED, a wave is sweeping Latin America. People who have been exploited for centuries are rising up and demanding that their resources be used to lift them out of poverty. During the Africa-South America Summit, the wave spread across the Atlantic.

Now it is time for us in the US to also surf that wave!

John

New Book!
Hoodwinked
An Economic Hit Man Reveals
Why the World Financial
Markets Imploded...and
What We Need to Do to
Remake Them
by John Perkins
NY Times Bestselling Author
Pre-Order at Amazon.com
November 2009

Cause for CELEBRATION: Book Finished, Yoko Ono, YOU

Dear Friends,

I recently finished HOODWINKED (to be published by Random House, Nov 10, 2009). It washappy to see that CONFESSIONS is still making headlines. The Week reported it among Yoko Ono's recommended books:

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/100543/Best_books__chosen_by_Yoko_Ono

(If the link does not work, please cut-and-paste.)

CONFESSIONS also is being taught this fall at many universities in the U.S. and other countries and continues to sell extremely well in bookstores and through websites. I think this says a great deal about the public’s desire to learn the truth and take action.

This should give all of us cause to celebrate. We are part of a movement that is changing  the world!!

I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at the “Healing and Shapeshifting Apprenticeship” at Omega Institute, Oct 18-25, 2009

Keep dancing, soaring, and energizing this new world!

Much love
John

John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center
The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins 
Order at Amazon.com

Speaking of Democracy, Honduras, and...

Dear Friends,

In writing my new book Hoodwinked (Random House, November 2009 publication date), I recently visited Central America. Everyone I talked with there was convinced that the military coup that had overthrown the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, had been engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. And that the US and its new president were not standing up for democracy.

Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.

Memories are short in the US, but not in Central America. I kept hearing people who claimed that it was a matter of record that Chiquita (United Fruit) and the CIA had toppled Guatemala’s democratically-elected president Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 and that International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), Henry Kissinger, and the CIA had  brought down Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973. These people were certain that Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted by the CIA in 2004 because he proposed a minimum wage increase, like Zelaya’s.

I was told by a Panamanian bank vice president, “Every multinational knows that if Honduras raises its hourly rate, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean will have to follow. Haiti and Honduras have always set the bottom line for minimum wages. The big companies are determined to stop what they call a ‘leftist revolt’ in this hemisphere. In throwing out Zelaya, they are sending frightening messages to all the other presidents who are trying to raise the living standards of their people.”

It did not take much imagination to envision the turmoil sweeping through every Latin American capital. There had been a collective sign of relief at Barack Obama’s election in the U.S., a sense of hope that the empire in the North would finally exhibit compassion toward its southern neighbors, that the unfair trade agreements, privatizations, draconian IMF Structural Adjustment Programs, and threats of military intervention would slow down and perhaps even fade away. Now, that optimism was turning sour.

The cozy relationship between Honduras’s military coup leaders and the corporatocracy were confirmed a couple of days after my arrival in Panama. England’s The Guardian ran an article announcing that “two of the Honduran coup government's top advisers have close ties to the US secretary of state. One is Lanny Davis, an influential lobbyist who was a personal lawyer for President Bill Clinton and also campaigned for Hillary. . . The other hired gun for the coup government that has deep Clinton ties is (lobbyist) Bennett Ratcliff.” (1)

DemocracyNow! broke the news that Chiquita was represented by a powerful Washington law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and its consultant, McLarty Associates (2). President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had been a Covington partner and a defender of Chiquita when the company was accused of hiring “assassination squads” in Colombia (Chiquita was found guilty, admitting that it had paid organizations listed by the US government as terrorist groups “for protection” and agreeing in 2004 to a $25 million fine). (3)  George W. Bush’s UN Ambassador, John Bolton, a former Covington lawyer, had fiercely opposed Latin American leaders who fought for their peoples’ rights to larger shares of the profits derived from their resources; after leaving the government in 2006, Bolton became involved with the Project for the New American Century, the Council for National Policy, and a number of other programs that promote corporate hegemony in Honduras and elsewhere.  McLarty Vice Chairman John Negroponte was U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, former Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and U.S. Representative to the United Nations; he played a major role in the U.S.-backed Contra’s secret war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista  government and has consistently opposed the policies of the  democratically-elected pro-reform Latin American presidents. (4) These three men symbolize the insidious power of the corporatocracy, its bipartisan composition, and the fact that the Obama Administration has been sucked in.

The Los Angeles Times went to the heart of this matter when it concluded:
What happened in Honduras is a classic Latin American coup in another sense: Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who led it, is an alumnus of the United States' School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school is best known for producing Latin American officers who have committed major human rights abuses, including military coups. (5)

All of this leads us once again to the inevitable conclusion: you and I must change the system. The president – whether Democrat or Republican – needs us to speak out.

Chiquita, Dole and all your representatives need to hear from you. Zelaya must be reinstated.

John 

Footnotes
(1) “Who's in charge of US foreign policy? The coup in Honduras has exposed divisions between Barack Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton” by Mark Weisbrot

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/16/honduras-coup-obama-clinton(July 23, 2009)

(2) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/from_arbenz_to_zelaya_chiquita_in(July 23, 2009)

(3) “Chiquita admits to paying Colombia terrorists: Banana company agrees to $25 million fine for paying AUC for protection” MSNBC March 15, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17615143/ (July 24, 2009)

 (4) Fore more information:  http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/07/eric-holder-and-chaquita-covington.html(July 23, 2009)

(5) “The high-powered hidden support for Honduras' coup: The country's rightful president was ousted by a military leadership that takes many of its cues from Washington insiders.” by Mark Weisbrot, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-weisbrot23-2009jul23,0,7566740.story(July 23, 2009)

John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center
The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins 
Order at Amazon.com
 

CHINA: A Lesson in Transformation

Dear Friends,

My new book, Hoodwinked, will be published in Nov 2009 (Broadway/Random House).  As part of the process of writing it, I recently visited China and drafted the following story on the plane trip home. --- John

 CHINA: Lesson in Transformation

Several times during my EHM tenure in the 1970s I stood on a hill in the New Territories outside Hong Kong and peered into China, a mysterious country I was not allowed to enter. China was locked behind a wall of secrecy. About all most of us knew was that the country was in shambles due to Mao’s Cultural Revolution.   
 
I finally had the opportunity to visit China in June 2009.
 
No one back in the ‘70s believed that any country could sustain double digit economic growth for more than a couple of years and under no circumstances for a decade.
 
China accomplished the impossible. And then it did it again. And again. China’s economy mushroomed by an estimated ten-fold. In three decades, the most populous nation on the planet rose from the depths of poverty to become the symbol of what human determination – and capitalism – can accomplish. 
 
We in the US seem to want to focus on China’s problems. People constantly point out the negatives, like its greenhouse gas levels recently surpassed ours (although on a per capita basis our emissions are five times greater than theirs). Driving toward my hotel in the modern Pudong district, I was certainly aware of the low-lying mist that I assumed was smog,  but I have to say that I was most struck by something quite different: the profusion of trees. There were dozens of varieties of them, everywhere. Tall, short, deciduous, coniferous, some bursting with colors – red, pink, white, and yellow flowers – they covered a broad center strip that divided outgoing from incoming traffic, lined the sides of the highway, and stretched back as far as the eye could see. Many were tall; all seemed healthy – either naturally suited to the local conditions or pampered. Obviously planted, they were clustered in formations that brought to mind the formal gardens of Versailles. In addition to creating a most pleasant environment for mile upon mile, they  performed another function, that of removing carbon dioxide from the air. It was my first inkling of China’s commitment to cleaning up its environment.
 
“Yes,” Mandy Zhang, an MBA student at the China Europe International Business School replied. CEIBS had brought me to Shanghai to speak at their Being Globally Responsible Conference and she was my host on my first evening at a restaurant near my hotel. “We are all very aware of the pollution our economic development has caused. We young people are especially determined to turn it around. Trees are one small part of the plan.”
 
Although the majority of the MBA students at CEIBS are Chinese, roughly 40 percent come from the United States, Europe, Latin America, and other parts of Asia. Their school was ranked among the top ten MBA programs in the world by the Financial Times in 2009 – along with Wharton, Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford.
 
Every time I asked them about the environment, the Chinese students agreed that cleaning it up was a priority. I was told again and again that it will happen. Economic growth had been the first goal; now the time had arrived to take care of the problems that rapid development had created. During the six days I was in Shanghai, the government announced that it would levy taxes against polluters, support a company that was developing electric cars by making plug-in stations available around much of the country, and offer rebates of approximately $4,000 (US) to customers who purchased those cars. “When the government says it will happen,” I was told time and again, “it will.”
 
The fact that roughly one sixth of the world’s population has turned itself so totally around in three decades signals hope for all of us. China is a land of many diverse cultures – ones that throughout history frequently fought each other; it has demonstrated the capacity we humans possess for uniting in order to realize a common cause.
 
Rather than fearing China or criticizing its pollution levels, we can draw on its remarkable example, encourage it to do better, and set our own goals of becoming greener than China at an even more rapid pace.
 
As my plane lifted off from Shanghai airport, I realized that my visit to China had inspired me with a new sense of hope. What a wonderful thing for all of us – and our children and grandchildren – if the new China motivates us in the US, and every other country, to compete to see who can become the most socially and environmentally responsible society on the planet.

John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center
The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins 
Order at Amazon.com

PERSPECTIVE: Terrorists and Pirates

Dear Friends,

We’ve been hearing a lot about terrorists and pirates for many years now; but reports about why they do what they do are just starting to filter through.

A pirate who goes by the name Abshir Abdullahi Abdi explained his reasons on NPR’s Morning Edition, on May 6, 2006. "We understand what we're doing is wrong. But hunger is more important than any other thing," he said.

NPR’s Gwen Thompkins followed up with this: “Fishing villages in the area have been devastated by illegal trawlers and waste dumping from industrialized nations. Coral reefs are reportedly dead. Lobster and tuna have vanished. Malnutrition is high.”

Amy Goodman introduced Mohamed Abshir Waldo on the April 14, 2009 edition of DemocracyNow! The autor of “The Two Piracies in Somalia: Why the World Ignores the Other?” he said:

Well, the two piracies are the original one, which was foreign fishing piracy by foreign trawlers and vessels, who at the same time were dumping industrial waste, toxic waste and, it also has been reported, nuclear waste (author’s note: from US navel vessels patrolling the oil lanes off the Somali coast). . .

And the other piracy is the shipping piracy. When the marine resource of Somalia was pillaged, when the waters were poisoned, when the fish was stolen, and in a poverty situation in the whole country, the fishermen felt that they had no other possibilities or other recourse but to fight with, you know, the properties and the shipping of the same countries that have been doing and carrying on the fishing piracy and toxic dumping. (4)

Hearing these reports about the Somali situation took me back to a morning in Nicaragua about a year ago. “Terrorism is not really an ‘ism’,” Miguel d’Escoto, the former Sandanista priest and current president of the UN General Assembly told me. “There’s no connection between the guerrillas who fought the Contras and Al Qaeda, or Colombia’s FARC and Somali pirates. That’s just a convenient way for your government to convince the world that there is another enemy ‘ism’ out there, like communism used to be.”

He and I talked about fanatics. We agreed that there would always be a lunatic fringe in the world – just as there would always be clinically insane people. “Perhaps Bin Laden is one of them,” I said. “But fanatics don’t get people to follow them unless those people are miserable, desperate.” Then I added, “I’ve often wondered about Robin Hood. He may have been a fanatic for all we know. But the Saxons had been invaded by the Normans and were abused horribly. They couldn’t even hunt deer in their own forests to feed their starving children. They would have flocked to anyone who defied the Normans and offered them hope.”

Father Miguel smiled. “And when the Normans sent the Sheriff of Nottingham to ferret Robin Hood out and destroy his band, all it did was rally the opposition. Hatred escalated.”

It seems that, in the long-run, no one benefits from attacking people who have been treated in ways they consider unjust. Violence, in such cases, begets violence. With one exception.

Those Eisenhower identified as the military-industrial complex, today’s corporatocracy, reap huge benefits. Those who build ships, missiles, and armored vehicles; make guns, uniforms and bulletproof vests; distribute food, soft drinks, and ammunition; provide insurance, medicines, and toilet paper; construct ports, airstrips, and housing; and reconstruct devastated villages, factories, schools, and hospitals – they, and only they, are the big winners.

John

John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center
The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins 
Order at Amazon.com


NOTES:
(1) NPR’s Morning Edition. “In Somalia, Piracy Is An Attractive Career Option” by Gwen Thompkins, May 6, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103815312

(2) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/14/analysis_somalia_piracy_began_in_response

 

New Book: Perspectives of an Economic Hit Man )

Dear friends,

I have a new book coming out in November 10, 2009, Perspectives of an Economic Hit Man: The Economic Crises and How to Solve It  working title (Broadway Business). It takes the journey we've traveled together the past five years to a new stage. Many of you have contributed to the evolution of my thinking by the important work you are doing and the stories you've shared. I am deeply grateful.

Below is a little advanced copy about the book.

John 

Perspectives of an Economic Hit Man (working title)
The Economic Crises and How to Solve It  (Broadway Business).
Pre-Order at Amazon.com 

John Perkins has enjoyed a front-row seat to world events for the past four decades. As Chief Economist and Manager of Economics and Regional Planning at a major consulting firm during the ‘70s, he advised some of the world’s most important leaders including the presidents of countries, Fortune 500 corporations, and organizations like the World Bank.  As CEO of an energy company during the ‘80s, he dealt with the intricacies of Wall Street and Washington politics. As founder and board member of several nonprofits during the ‘90s and 2000s, he gained first-hand knowledge of the changes sweeping through governments on ever continent and into corporate board rooms. Now, as we enter a new era, John enjoys a unique insider’s perspective on events that created today’s economic crisis.
 
His classic exposé, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, spent over 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists and is published in more than 30 languages. His follow-up New York Times bestseller, The Secret History of the American Empire, provides an analysis of the factors behind the current global meltdown. These two books launched John on a 5-year speaking tour across the US and to countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa.
 
The perspective of this trained economist who has participated in so many of the actions that have molded our recent past makes him uniquely qualified to propose solutions for the future.
 
But the solutions he advocates are not the standard “return to normal” ones. Instead, John challenges us to soar to new heights. Defining ours as a pivotal point in history, he urges us to take steps that will launch us into an era which is likely to be viewed by historians as equivalent to the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions.
 
This is a book that will be bought by the millions of readers around the world who have enjoyed the author’s earlier ones, as well as by people who are personally impacted by the recession and are just now realizing the importance of  understanding the sources of and solutions to today’s problems. In addition, it will have special appeal to high school, college, and graduate students – those young men and women who realize that the responsibility of elevating us to new levels will fall on them.

John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center

John Perkins EVENTS: Seattle, San Jose, Denver

Hello dear friends,

These are amazing times. We have arrived at a pivotal moment in history; we are challenged to move out of an adolescent stage of human economic development (characterized by colonialist and exploitative policies) into a mature recognition that we are a fragile species living on a small, highly interdependent planet.

In order for my grandson to hope to inherit a sustainable, just, and peaceful world -- every baby born in every country must have that same expectation -- and it must be realized for all. Homeland security will come only when we understand that the entire planet is our homeland.

I hope you will join me at one of the events listed below, in Seattle, San Jose, Denver, and Boulder -- so we can explore these issues together in greater depth. The first step is for all of us to engage in the conversation.

Looking forward to seeing you.

John Perkins

 
SUN  March 29  - GREEN FESTIVAL
SEATTLE, WA
1 pm talk main stage; co-produced by Global Exchange and Green America
2 pm booksigning
LOCATION: WA State Convention & Trade Center 800 Convention Place (7th and Pike)For more information: www.greenfestivals.org

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS...

MON March 30
SAN JOSE, CA
TALK & SIGNING, BRANHAM HIGH SCHOOL, SAN JOSE, CA at 7 pm
1570 Branham Lane, San Jose, CA 95118
Sponsored by Branham High School
TOPIC: "The Secret History of the American EmpireWhat Next? How to Change It"
Open to the Public: Adults $20, Students $10; seating limited to first 200 attendees
Tickets may be purchased online at Branham website;
For more information, go to www.branham.cuhsd.org or
email  John Salberg at jsalberg23@yahoo.com   or call 408-246-3191

TUE March 31
DENVER, CO
TALK & BOOKSIGNING, Regis University, Denver, CO at 8 pm
LOCATION: Student Center Dining Room, Regis University
3333 Regis Blvd Denver, CO
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Sponsors: John J. Sullivan Endowed Chair for Free Enterprise at Regis University, Regis College Leadership Development Program, RegisUniversity Student Government Association.
TOPIC: Transforming Turmoil into a New Economy (1 hr.)
For more information: www.regis.edu/sullivan

WED April 1
DENVER, CO
LUNCHEON TALK/SIGNING- Denver, CO at 11:30 am- 1:30 pm MT
Room 333 of Main Hall at Regis University.
TOPIC: Transforming Turmoil into a New Economy.
There is a $35 fee to attend the lunch
To register for the lunch please go to www.regonline.com/john_perkins

WED Apr. 1
DENVER, CO
TALK and BOOKSIGNING, Boulder, CO at 7 pm MT
Sponsored by KGNU Community Radio
KGNU, 4700 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO
Open to the public; Donation requested
Contact: Joanne Cole 303-449-4885 joanne@kgnu.org

Ethical Consciousness: A New Vision

Dear friends

An Egyptian named Khalid Salaheldin attended a “Shapeshifting” weekend workshop I taught at Omega this past summer. On the morning of the second day, he announced to the entire class that he was an economic hit man who had just flown in from Dubai. He had not known why he had signed up for the workshop until that moment. Now, he said, he understood.

He and I had several discussions during breaks and then several weeks later I received the following email from him. Although Khalid describes me as the one who “collected a group of people” it is clear that his dream and the “Ethical Consciousness” label is for and about all of us. I share it with you in the hope that it will inspire you to – as he says – “bring to fruition” the dream of his great grandchildren.

Best wishes,
John

PS Khalid provides a brief bio at the end of his email – below.

Hi John,

Finally, I'm in a position to write you. I left the US, flew to Cairo, then came to Dubai exhausted by the long trip to the US and back home. I'm starting to get over the jet lag.

I want to thank you for the workshop and to share a story with you that came to me during one of my “journeys.” It is handed down to me from my great grandchildren...

A New Vision
They told me that a long time ago, in one of the year’s between 2010 and 2015, a man named John Perkins collected a group of people around him. He had prepared all his life for this moment. Some of those who joined him were financially powerful, some were wisdom-keepers, some were action-oriented, some were intellectuals, and some were politically influential. All of them were courageous. Unlike a lot of their neighbors, they had crossed the threshold and left fear behind. John and his group were like a pack of smart, strong and courageous wolves that attacked the giant behemoth. Their job was to tear it's flesh away -- so that it could replace the old stinking flesh with a more beautiful skin that radiated compassion.

They created a brand name: “Ethical Consciousness.” They lobbied for and received endorsements from many NGOs across the planet. They developed a set of criteria to govern how commercial enterprises should behave – in the areas of production, trade, resource consumption, profits, treatment of employees and customers, marketing, advertising, and other fields relating to environmental and social responsibility – and awarded the "Ethical Consciousness" endorsement to those enterprises that complied.

They worked with educational institutions in every city on the planet to inspire graduate departments to act as the auditing houses for the annual endorsement of the brand name. Graduate students everywhere learned about ethical approaches for managing organizations. At the same time they developed an awareness campaign for consumers, teaching them to buy only from ethical enterprises. People around the world took pride in wearing clothes and purchasing products that bore the “Ethical Consciousness” logo.

It was a planetary movement that transformed how business was done on every level. The mindset of people who were employees in the morning and parents in the evening changed. They were so proud of what they were doing in the morning that they were teaching their children in the evening about the "Ethical" way.

That's when my great grandchildren felt it was time for them to manifest into form and carry this work forth into their generation – and to share it with me and people in my generation.

It is a vision I hope others will help bring to fruition.

Khalid

Brief Bio: I am an Egyptian who worked for America global corporations from 1990 to 1998. I traveled throughout Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Because of my Arab background, I was responsible for opening subsidiaries in several Middle Eastern countries. Starting in 1995 I also headed up non-profit NGOs that were funded by those same corporations. These NGOs interfaced with government officials and local US commercial trade staffs with the specific goal of changing laws in ways that would benefit the corporations. I have lied, manipulated, and coerced – all under the general banner of “economic development” and “doing the right thing.” Now I truly do want to do the right thing. I want to teach others about what I know and in the process create a sustainable, just, and peaceful world. I am actively involved in developing programs for teaching teachers.

The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins 
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John Perkins COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center