SECOND IN A SERIES

The rise of the that President Eisenhower warned us about 46 years ago has now expanded beyond defense-related industries into “disaster relief” and is emerging as the “new economy”  that generates profits by feeding off other peoples’ misery: Wars, terror attacks, natural catastrophes, and all other kinds of disasters, man-made or natural.

Disasters come in many forms: Weapons destroying power plants and hospitals, nature weakening levees and bridges, hurricanes and tsunamis wiping out cities and whole regions, and so on.

Reconstruction is now such a big business as the market is humongous: $30 billion for Iraq reconstruction, $13 billion for tsunami reconstruction, $110 billion for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast."

Naomi Klein, in her new “must read” book, The Shock Doctrine, she describes how our government is shifting its responsibilities to the private sector, using taxpayer dollars to outsource the services it once provided. This has blurred the boundaries between the corporate and political elite, shifting America from a representative democracy to a government controlled by multiple, competing, well-financed special interests.

HERE IS AN INTERVIEW NAOMI KLEIN DID WITH BILL MAHER

Klein makes a very interesting statement when she wrote:

"Disaster Capitalism" firms need wars to generate profits. And by sidestepping the draft, Iraq became a privatized war employing over 185,000 (20,000 more than the military), including truck drivers, PX clerks and mercenary soldiers. Blackwater USA was near bankruptcy before the war.

"The vast infrastructure of the disaster industry, built up with taxpayer money, is all privately controlled" through special interests favoring the wealth classes during reconstruction. In New Orleans Klein saw the "so-called FEMA-villes: desolate out-of-the-way trailer camps for low-income evacuees [with guards that] treated survivors like criminals;" while the wealthy gated communities quickly received water and power generators, private school and hospital services.

The former head of FEMA, Joe Allbaugh, is a registered lobbyist for Halliburton Subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root on disaster relief issues. According to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate, Allbaugh has lobbied to "Educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues affecting Kellogg Brown and Root. No specific bill to be lobbied at this time."

Lastly, she contends that in the aftermath of these various disasters, not only democracy but also human rights fall by the wayside — all in the name of freedom and the free market!