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August 6, 2002
Robert Fisk
The Return
to Afghanistan
Alexander Cockburn
The
Fox in the Pension Fund
August 5, 2002
Rahul Mahajan
Iraq
and the New Great Game
Jordy Cummings
The
Last Frontier of
Israel and Palestine
Bernard Weiner
Inside
Saddam's Diary
Mike Leon
US Mute
to Israeli Brutality
Norman Madarasz
Brazil:
the Most Important Election of 2002?
August 4, 2002
Susan Davis
Fat Americans
August 3, 2002
David Krieger
Nuclear
Apartheid
Gilad Atzmon
The End
of Innocence
Gavin Keeney
Everybody's
a Critic
Alexander Cockburn
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save Dick Cheney?
August 2, 2002
Ralph Nader
The Labor
Party
Chris Floyd
Moral Maze:
Bankruptcy Made Easy
Jeremy Scahill
Saddam,
Chemical Weapons and Donald Rumsfeld
Jeffrey St. Clair
Dark Deeds in the Black Hills:
Daschle Dooms the
Sacred Land of the Sioux
August 1, 2002
Steven Higgs
Activists
Under Siege
Anthony Gancarski
Draft
Picks:
Staffing the Latest War
Zeynep Toufe
Invisible
Children: AIDS,
Africa and Selective Vision
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel and Squawk:
Angelina Jolie, the NYT
and the Attack on McKinney
July 31, 2002
Amelia Peltz
Inside
Ramallah:
How Can the World Witness Such Suffering and Do Nothing?
M. Shahid Alam
The Academic
Boycott of Israel
Bernard Weiner
20 Things
We've Learned Since 9/11
Philip Cryan
Discourse
and War in Colombia
Neve Gordon
A Feast
of Bombs:
Sharon's Endgame for Palestine
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The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
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Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
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Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
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August
6, 2002
What the Hell
are They Teaching at Harvard These Days?
Corporate
Crime Goes Global
by Jerre Skog
Some of my fellow beings in the USA might feel
that some of their mighty corporations are nothing but members
of a giant (Dis-?) Organized Crime syndicate, there with the
sole purpose of creating wealth for the higher CEOs and funding
for the Reps and Dems, but that nevertheless the system works.
The thought that their Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Global Crossing,
Qwest and others too many to mention, are the few rotten apples
on the world wide tree of business, where the rest of the fruit
is clean, fresh and edible, might be tempting, but it is unfortunately
self deceptive and not true. It is a big mess, really! But I
can assure you that you are not alone. The fruit from the capitalist
tree is not fit for consumtion by even pigs, whether it is plucked
in Europe, Asia or Africa. The creativity of accounting departments
has finally left other corporate creativity far behind.
Today some late info on Swedish communications
giant Ericsson arrived. Please sit down now!! Two years ago the
CEOs' bonus were based on the results. Then Ericsson lost more
than $3 Bn. Quickly restructuring the bonus to be based on cash-flow
(and then hurriedly selling off subsidiaries, factories and everything
that wasn't bolted down) the CEOs still managed to recieve a
juicy bit of cash. Now there's not much left to sell and the
CEOs risk losing their bonus. After two years of massive losses,
when the shares have lost 95 % of their value, and 20 % of the
work force has been kicked into insecurity, Ericsson now again
restructures its bonus system to allow its CEOs to cash in. After
a first half year 2002 of catastrophy, bonuses will be based
on a combination of incoming orders and customers' payment capacity,
those obviously on the way up. We can expect it to be a sad day
indeed for all Swedes the next time their formely proud, old
and honest Ericsson changes its bonus system, as the logical
next step is for it to be based on losses.
It may be perfectly legal but it belongs
in a barred sandbox!
Last years Germany and others have had
their fair share of corporate scandals. Multinational Monitor
rated chemical multi Bayer AG among the Top Ten Worst Companies
of the year in 2001. And though they might not have cooked their
books, BASF and Hoffman-La Roche's crimes has lead to them being
fined more than $ 700 mil recently. The pattern of blowing up
earnings seems to be less common in Europe. Either the CEOs'
bonuses are constructed in a way not encouraging such behaviour
or there are better checks on the companies. Noone should think
that other forms of corporate crime is unusual, however. Illegal
donations to politicians is widespread and greed is widely found,
perhaps illustrated by the boards thinking of "if it's for
sale, buy it" until liquidity problems makes them go bust.
The employees go to live on welfare while the CEOs find new lucrative
employment.
France has had its own scandals and though
president Chirac hasn't been indicted most people expect his
bank-accounts to be well stuffed with illgotten "presents".
Recently the giant French multinatinal media conglomerate Vivendi
International managed to kick out its boss Jean-Marie Messier
(what an appropriate name!) before he destroyed the company completely,
after dealings far over his head causing a $12 Bn loss in 2001
and dropping the shares to a 14 year low. And book-cooking hasn't
even come to light. Yet! A documentary on BBC recently revealed
how a deal involving frigates for the Taiwanese navy had been
bribed into reality (causing a murder in its wake) by unscrupulous
middlemen and high level French officials. The Elf-Aquitane purchase
of the east German Leuna refinery, after almost 20 years still
keeps attorneys, prosecutors and press corps busy in both Germany
and France and former German Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl still
refuses to reveal where a lot of his and right-wing CDU's funding
has come from. The ex-chancellor is, to noone's surprise not
behind bars (but seems to be frequently by them).
Weapons deals internationally, almost
without exceptions, have shown that noone really sells deadly
hardware without paying 5-10% in commission (read: $$$BRIBES$$$)
to middlemen, often of dubious reputation. The Swedish howitzer
deal with India in the 80s enrichened friends of Rajiv Gandhi
(and ruined Bofors' reputation). Jetsetter mr Khashoggy can thank
US killer machine producers Northtrop, Lockheed, Boeing, Grumman
and others for his fabulous riches and a mr Mark Thatcher (you
guessed it! son of British ex-PM) has cashed in mightily on the
arms trade. French and British companies have a long and dirty
tradition since the days of "merchant of death" sir
Basil Zaharoff.
Italy has always been famous in Europe
for its very liberal look on sleaze, bribes and dubious financial
deals making some people rich beyond understanding. With mr Silvio
Berlusconi, himself accused of close ties with the mafia, as
prime ministerial example noone should expect Italy to be any
"cleaner" these days. The G8 summit in Genoa not long
ago clearly demonstrated the willingness by the government to
defend the present corporate system if it had to walk over dead
bodies.
The Britons seem to have a tendency for
hushing up a lot of their crimes. Perhaps too many of the chairmen
has "been at Oxford or Eton together" with influental
media owners. Or they prefer to concentrate on celebreties' weird
sexual habits. Still, BBC has reported enough dirty deals to
last a long time.
The Dutch and Belgian speciality appears
to be production and selling of livestock futter with added illegal
substances or converting stuff that ought to have been destroyed
to saleable food, for humans or animals. To gather a very angry
gang of German farmers, ready to march to torch the factories
that sold them the futter that caused their meat products to
be banned, should be a simple task.
All the shady deals in Asia, very often
by multinationals, would require an army of investigators to
compile, and make this article much too long. But rest assured
that they are by no means unknown. Maybe the Japanese habit by
offenders, of crying and humbling themselves in front of the
TV cameras, keep down the worst excesses. And if I had a diamond
for every shady, criminal and murderous deal done in Africa,
I'd be a very rich man indeed. The European and American companies
robbing the continent of gold, minerals and oil don't even rely
on advice from Anderson Consulting. They rely on mercenaries,
antipersonnel mines and greedy warlords.
And, Dear Americans, if you think that
your politicians are overpaid, greedy or crooked, the European
Union is no shining example and Netherland's latest feat unapproachable:
The newly appointed Minister for Family and Equality Affairs,
Philomena Bijlhout, had to step down immediately the other day,
after it was found out she had earlier worked with Surinam's
murderous militia in '82-83. (hey, isn't there a hint for Negroponte
and Reich somewhere?) Her 6 hours in office will reward her with
150.000 Euro (Euro~US$) plus some extra bonus.
People are fundamentally not so different
whether living in Ougadougoo, Trondheim or Seattle. It's the
system that corrupts and destroys.
Capitalism thrives on greed and greed
corrupts just like power! We wouldn't dream of letting trains
or lorrys run amok. Why do we allow Big Biz?
But you are not alone in America! They
have taken over here too!
Jerre Skog
is a Swedish writer, musician and alternative observer living
in Germany since 1999. More articles, political and satirical
can be found on: Jerre´s Thinktank www.skog.de
Comments are welcome at: jerre@skog.de
Today's Features
Robert Fisk
The Return
to Afghanistan
Alexander Cockburn
The
Fox in the Pension Fund
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