Opinion
The imperialist strategy is to employ the corporate media and NGOs to create the legitimacy they need to create conditions of instability in a sovereign country.
Cory Morningstar
Cambio (in Spanish)
"Al-Jazeera, which began as a credible news agency, has become the prostitute of international journalism, as believable as a fool alienated scribbles on the walls of a football stadium. Of what is really happening in Syria informed in the coming days, and meanwhile, we will tell the story of Libya, which may not be seen on Al-Jazeera, nor in the British liar Waste Corporation [BBC], its friend and bed partner. " Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru, in his article The West, Syria and Libya.
It's no secret that Al Jazeera has become a fundamental tool of propaganda to serve the imperialist powers in destabilization campaigns that expand at a rate unprecedented throughout the world. What is perhaps less known is the destabilization campaign organized against Bolivian President Evo Morales, which he avoided and successfully passed in late 2011, when the media reported several deaths, including a baby, all of which resulted be a complete fabrication.
The destabilization campaign strategically focused on an issue commonly known as the Tipnis (Indian Country and Isiboro Secure National Park), an environmentally sensitive area, where most of the people want a road that provides access to health care public, and education.
The road also represents liberation and autonomy for the people of one of the poorest countries in Latin America, which fights for his process of change under the pressure of the minority group of the Indigenous Confederation of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB), hidden behind the green flag. It should be noted that Morales gave to each of the demands of Cidob, including intangibility that had called his "advisers" from overseas, which led to one of the Indians said in disbelief, "We're screwed." The intangibility makes Tipnis untouchable, so now other groups are demanding that legislation be reversed.
Destabilization on the pretext of humanitarian intervention
Appearing live on Al Jazeera, the author Juan Carlos Zambrana Marchetti (correspondent change in the U.S.) put the record straight. He explained that the campaign of destabilization against Evo Morales is led by US-funded NGOs (including Democracy Center, Amazon Watch and Avaaz). The sponsors of the major NGOs are leading the effort to destabilize include USAID, NED, Open Society Institute (George Soros) and various Rockefeller, to name a few. In addition, these donors have invested heavily in REDD, a program sponsored by Avaaz and lots of corporate environmental organizations. This is a false solution to climate crisis, rather, contains a high degree of climate racism which the ALBA countries and continue to oppose vehemently Morales
Morales's leadership, based on a vision to serve the people of Bolivia to escape the clutches of imperialism, is a model that threatens the entire industrialized world system of capitalism and oligarchy who serves him. The corporate-funded NGOs are conceived and financed (sometimes simply co-opted) as an integral tool to protect the system ... similar to the role of corporate media.
The imperialist powers use the same strategy over and over again. Libya is a good example and the most recent. NGOs were absolutely central to the destabilization and invasion of Libya, a country with no debt and with the highest living standards in Africa. Few know that Gaddafi was a guest of honor at Columbia University in 2006, to discuss and share, knowledge and vision of Libya in the "direct democracy" (based on the Green Paper), a conference was broadcast live.
"Capital is more than happy to enlist mainstream movement (environmentalist) as a partner in the management of nature. Major environmental groups offer comfort to triple capital: as legitimation, reminding the world that the system works, as control over popular dissent, a sponge that absorbs and constrains the ecological anxiety in the population, and as a rationalization, a Governor useful to introduce some control and protect the system from its worst tendencies, while ensuring the orderly flow of profits. " Joel Kovel.
The imperialist strategy is to employ the corporate media and NGOs to create the necessary legitimacy to conduct destabilization. When there are internal differences, infiltrate the organizations using the NGOs funded by large corporations to foster division. The motto is divide and conquer using mercenaries financed by the imperialist states to create conflict where and when deemed necessary. Also, use the mass media and NGOs to ensure that the public see the destabilization campaign through the lens, or under the guise of humanitarian intervention to bring "democracy" the people. Where the opportunity presents itself, use the illusion of a spontaneous uprising. (This has become the favorite strategy through US-funded groups like Otpor! And others who prey on vulnerable young people with good intentions.)
Yes, the imperialists will carry the illusion of "democracy" white man's ethnic countries with natural resources, bombing them to pieces if necessary to gain control of those resources, or to crush a union model and strengthening resistance to colonial rule. A union such as Libya, under the leadership of Gaddafi, was successfully achieved for the liberation of the nations of Africa, or the countries of ALBA and Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean), which away from dependence on the U.S. dollar, representing a threat to the imperialist powers.
Gaddafi sought to introduce the gold dinar Africa, before he was brutally murdered and a beautiful country was devastated. Under the pretext of "humanitarian intervention", about 100,000 people were killed, men, women and children, while foreign interests are stealing and looting every last drop of the wealth of Libya, both monetary and cultural and ecological.
Bolivia is and will remain a country of people who desperately fighting for their autonomy and resist imperialism, against all odds. The question is whether we, as citizens of industrialized countries serve the imperialists choose to support his agenda, or we will respect the Bolivian people, confident that you can better manage the difficult process of change without foreign interference.
(*) Cory Morningstar is a well known Canadian activist for environmental justice. His articles have appeared in Political Context, The Wrong Kind of Green, Canadians for Climate Change, Counter Currents, Climate & Capitalism, Huntington News and others.
Showing posts with label promotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label promotion. Show all posts
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Dr. Denise Horn: Foreign Funding as a Strategy for Manipulation
Sujata Tuladhar
TUFTS Fletcher
Date: March 10, 2008
“Powerful states do engage in exploitation of NGO networks and are very specific about it,” stated Dr. Denise Horn, Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Northeastern University.
At a talk entitled “NGO Funding and the Manipulation of Civil Society within Transitional States” organized by the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights at The Fletcher School on February 19th, Dr. Horn discussed the development of a new international trend in which hegemonic states use funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a tool to control social agenda. The event was co-sponsored by Global Women, a student group at The Fletcher School that invites speakers and sponsors a mentoring program.
Using case studies from Moldova and Estonia, Dr. Horn established three main findings. First, she described how foreign countries help establish the rules for civil society. They can delineate the boundaries of the issues they identify as being important. An outstanding example is that of the United States, which through NGO funding, has significantly contributed to the emergence of a particular notion of democracy and the process of democratization. Only aspects of democracy valuable to US foreign policy have been funded. “Because the US has a lot of power and a lot of money to invest in democracy programs and policy, they get to determine what democracy looks like and what policies are democratic.”
Her second finding is that “foreign donors frame the debate within civil society and domestic politics by focusing on particular issues and funding local NGOs willing to support those targeted issues.” For instance, US-funded programs focus on free and fair elections, promote multi-party participation, encourage women in political parties and free market reforms as part of the process of democratization. NGOs who do not subscribe to these means of democratization are not funded, thus reducing their voice in political discourse.
Through analysis of the ‘requests for proposals’ published by donors and the proposals written in response to them, Dr. Horn also found that “because foreign funding can shape the language of the projects that develop, it shapes the way individuals perceive themselves vis-à-vis civil society and the state through the programs and social campaigns that are implemented by local NGOs.”
For instance, Moldova received heavy funding for programs dealing with human trafficking. The US approaches trafficking as an economic problem alone and thus fails to address the social and economic underpinning of the issue. Therefore, resulting programs focused on providing women with economic skills without understanding why women participate in trafficking in the first place. Similarly, in Estonia, US funding concentrated on domestic violence. As a result, people claiming to be victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse rose significantly.
Dr. Horn went on to elaborate that the decision of donor states such as the US to engage in funding NGOs is, in fact, a strategy to fulfill their respective national interests. Through funding NGOs, they shape what kind of civil society networks emerge, which will in turn serve their foreign policies. For instance, the US encourages countries to democratize because it believes that states that believe in the American notion of democracy are more responsive to US foreign policy. Most often, civil society is leveraged for such interventions because it serves as a less threatening approach.
How far this strategy has reached and whether or not other big states are also following similar strategies is a question yet to be answered. However, with a growing number of research studies like the one Dr. Horn pursues, there is bound to be a growing pool of knowledge on this issue soon.
TUFTS Fletcher
Date: March 10, 2008
“Powerful states do engage in exploitation of NGO networks and are very specific about it,” stated Dr. Denise Horn, Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Northeastern University.
At a talk entitled “NGO Funding and the Manipulation of Civil Society within Transitional States” organized by the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights at The Fletcher School on February 19th, Dr. Horn discussed the development of a new international trend in which hegemonic states use funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a tool to control social agenda. The event was co-sponsored by Global Women, a student group at The Fletcher School that invites speakers and sponsors a mentoring program.
Using case studies from Moldova and Estonia, Dr. Horn established three main findings. First, she described how foreign countries help establish the rules for civil society. They can delineate the boundaries of the issues they identify as being important. An outstanding example is that of the United States, which through NGO funding, has significantly contributed to the emergence of a particular notion of democracy and the process of democratization. Only aspects of democracy valuable to US foreign policy have been funded. “Because the US has a lot of power and a lot of money to invest in democracy programs and policy, they get to determine what democracy looks like and what policies are democratic.”
Her second finding is that “foreign donors frame the debate within civil society and domestic politics by focusing on particular issues and funding local NGOs willing to support those targeted issues.” For instance, US-funded programs focus on free and fair elections, promote multi-party participation, encourage women in political parties and free market reforms as part of the process of democratization. NGOs who do not subscribe to these means of democratization are not funded, thus reducing their voice in political discourse.
Through analysis of the ‘requests for proposals’ published by donors and the proposals written in response to them, Dr. Horn also found that “because foreign funding can shape the language of the projects that develop, it shapes the way individuals perceive themselves vis-à-vis civil society and the state through the programs and social campaigns that are implemented by local NGOs.”
For instance, Moldova received heavy funding for programs dealing with human trafficking. The US approaches trafficking as an economic problem alone and thus fails to address the social and economic underpinning of the issue. Therefore, resulting programs focused on providing women with economic skills without understanding why women participate in trafficking in the first place. Similarly, in Estonia, US funding concentrated on domestic violence. As a result, people claiming to be victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse rose significantly.
Dr. Horn went on to elaborate that the decision of donor states such as the US to engage in funding NGOs is, in fact, a strategy to fulfill their respective national interests. Through funding NGOs, they shape what kind of civil society networks emerge, which will in turn serve their foreign policies. For instance, the US encourages countries to democratize because it believes that states that believe in the American notion of democracy are more responsive to US foreign policy. Most often, civil society is leveraged for such interventions because it serves as a less threatening approach.
How far this strategy has reached and whether or not other big states are also following similar strategies is a question yet to be answered. However, with a growing number of research studies like the one Dr. Horn pursues, there is bound to be a growing pool of knowledge on this issue soon.
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