Amazon.com
Fearless investigative journalists Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! and Mad Cow U.S.A.) are back with a gripping exposé of the public relations industry and the scientists who back their business-funded, anti-consumer-safety agendas. There are two kinds of "experts" in question--the PR spin doctors behind the scenes and the "independent" experts paraded before the public, scientists who have been hand-selected, cultivated, and paid handsomely to promote the views of corporations involved in controversial actions. Lively writing on controversial topics such as dioxin, bovine growth hormone, and genetically modified food makes this a real page-turner, shocking in its portrayal of the real and potential dangers in each of these technological innovations and of the "media pseudo-environment" created to obfuscate the risks. By financing and publicizing views that support the goals of corporate sponsors, PR campaigns have, over the course of the century, managed to suppress the dangers of lead poisoning for decades, silence the scientist who discovered that rats fed on genetically modified corn had significant organ abnormalities, squelch television and newspaper stories about the risks of bovine growth hormone, and place enough confusion and doubt in the public's mind about global warming to suppress any mobilization for action.
Rampton and Stauber introduce the movers and shakers of the PR industry, from the "risk communicators" (whose job is to downplay all risks) and "outrage managers" (with their four strategies--deflect, defer, dismiss, or defeat) to those who specialize in "public policy intelligence" (spying on opponents). Evidently, these elaborate PR campaigns are created for our own good. According to public relations philosophers, the public reacts emotionally to topics related to health and safety and is incapable of holding rational discourse. Needless to say, Rampton and Stauber find these views rather antidemocratic and intend to pull back the curtain to reveal the real wizard in Oz. This is one wake-up call that's hard to resist. --Lesley Reed
Book Description
The book that unmasks the sneaky and widespread methods industry uses to influence opinion through bogus experts, doctored data, and manufactured facts.
"Finally a long-overdue exposé of the shenanigans and subterfuge that lie behind the making of experts in America." (Jeremy Rifkin)
"If you want to know how the world wags, and who's wagging it, here's your answer." (Bill Moyers)
"Meticulously researched . . . Rampton and Stauber's documentation of PR campaigns proves that they are the real 'experts.' " (Brill's Content) AUTHOBIO: John Stauber is the founder and director of the Center for Media & Democracy. He and Sheldon Rampton write and edit the quarterly PR Watch: Public Interest Reporting on the PR/Public Affairs Industry.
Customer Reviews:
The Death of Capitalism.......2007-09-04
Capitalism - market economy - free enterprise - these are the jewels in the crown of civilization which, since the renaissance, have brought unprecedented wealth, prosperity and freedom to large parts of the world. Capitalism has struggled and eventually triumphed over its historical adversaries; in earlier times, popes and kings and in our time socialism and communism. In the 21st century, since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, international corporate capitalism is bursting, like fireworks, in triumph; merging, globalizing and buying governments. What puny opposition remains is easily dispatched with a broad range of powerful weapons which have been developed over the years. Today the only real threat to capitalism is capitalism!
Socialists may practice socialism and Christians may practice Christianity but if by capitalism we mean a competitive market driven economic system, then capitalists do not practice capitalism. Theorists notwithstanding, capitalism is not an ideology, it is merely a description. Capitalists are not trying to implement some philosophy, they are only trying to make a buck any way they can. To a capitalist the biggest enemy is not socialism or labor unions or liberals or environmentalists, or even big government, the biggest enemy is risk. Risk of not making money. Risk of losing money.
Making money and avoiding risk in doing so is what capitalism is all about. But it is precisely in the risk taking that society draws its benefits from capitalism. That is the dilemma. Risk promotes wise investment resulting in efficiency, innovation and the creation of wealth, not just for the capitalist but for society as a whole. But a lot of capitalists fall by the wayside in the process. It is in the capitalist's interest to eliminate risk and society's interest to prevent them from doing so. The way to avoid risk is to control the market and to do that they must also control the government. This struggle has been going on for hundreds of years: capitalists forming monopolies, oligarchies and trusts and society breaking them up.
So long as society can keep pace with all the tricks and turns that capitalists take to avoid risk, the world would continue to reap the blessings of capitalism. But for the capitalists to succeed in eliminating risk, they would have to eliminate competition resulting in a monopoly of corporations with as much efficiency and innovation as any government bureaucracy. The ultimate risk-free climax would be monopoly and oligarchy and the corporate-run government necessary to keep it that way -- functionally indistinguishable from a Mafia run state or a Stalinist one. Capitalism, instead of an engine which pumps wealth to society and makes some capitalist wealthy in the process, would become an engine which sucks the wealth out of society, making a handful wealthy by impoverishing the rest.
We see this process going on in third world countries today and we are seeing the beginnings of it at home, in America. All three branches of government are increasingly under the control of corporations. Both political parties are addicted to corporate financing. Mergers, acquisitions and globalization, all techniques for eliminating risk, are rampant. The media is being merged and taken over by corporations and increasingly being used as public relations outlets for the corporations.
Right now society is not keeping pace. The tricks and turns that corporate capitalists use to avoid risk have gotten trickier and twistier. Just as a mosquito injects an anesthetic so that you will not feel it is sucking your blood, corporations are coopting the very processes by which people recognize what is going on so that more and more we are living in a virtual reality without realizing it. Sort of like a Potemkin village or like the movie The Truman Story where a boy is born and raised on a television set without knowing it. And as corporations merge and grow larger, they have even bigger budgets to build even more elaborate and convincing "sets". But this is not science fiction. The "sets" are being built around us as you read this.
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber of the Center for Media & Democracy have been documenting this process for years. Their publications include a quarterly newsletter, PR Watch, and several books including: Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry, Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?, and now Trust Us, We're Experts. While flippant and amusing, these books and articles tell a very chilling story of corporate public relations manipulation and spin control growing exponentially in size, audacity and sophistication.
The "father of public relations", Rampton and Stauber point out in Trust Us, is Edward L. Bernays, son in law and disciple of Sigmund Freud. By following Bernays' philosophy one can see the road map to the future. Here are some of his ideas [pp 42 - 44]:
** scientific manipulation of public opinion is necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society
** In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
** while most people respond to their world instinctively, without thought, there exist an intelligent few who have been charged with the responsibility of contemplating and influencing the tide of history
** public relations is an applied science, like engineering, through which society's leaders could bring order out of chaos
** being herd like also made people remarkably susceptible to leadership.
Of course that "leadership" can only be exercised by those who can afford the price of the Hill & Knowltons and APCOs of this world.
Here are some cases of virtual reality cited in their latest book. Big contributions, free junkets and the promise of future jobs are the more obvious ways of corrupting legislators but less obvious and more subtle is the use of public relations to actually manipulate the "facts". A typical example of how this works is illustrated on page 14.
"In the Fall of 1997, Georgetown University's Credit Research Center issued a study which concluded that many debtors are using bankruptcy as an excuse to wriggle out of their obligations to creditors. Lobbyists for bank and credit card companies seized on the study as they lobbied Congress for changes in federal law that would make it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy relief. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen cited the study in a Washington Times opinion column, offering Georgetown's academic imprimatur as evidence of the need for `bankruptcy reform'. What Bentsen failed to mention was that the Credit Research Center is funded in its entirety by credit card companies, banks, retailers, and others in the credit industry. The study itself was produced with a $100,000 grant from Visa USA and MasterCard International Inc. Bentsen also failed to mention that he himself had been hired to work as a credit-industry lobbyist."
Coopting and distorting the very sources of knowledge and information which informed people, legislators, scientists, government officials, the press, etc. rely on as being objective and scientific is one of the most clever and the most egregious techniques for creating virtual reality. As an EPA employee I have seen many examples of self-serving corporate sponsored "scientific" studies being foisted off on EPA and used to justify weak ineffective regulations or no regulations at all. The fraud, if discovered at all, is rarely discovered by EPA. In the absence of high level support there is very little incentive for science bureaucrats to look closely at studies with powerful backers.
From p. 199: If you want to know just how craven some scientists can be, the archives of the tobacco industry offer a treasure trove of examples. Thanks to whistle-blowers and lawsuits, millions of pages of once-secret industry documents have become public and are freely available over the Internet. In 1998, for example, documents came to light regarding an industry- sponsored campaign in the early 1990s to plant sympathetic letters and articles in influential medical journals. Tobacco companies had secretly paid 13 scientists a total of $156,000 simply to write a few letters to influential medical journals. One biostatistician, Nathan Mantel of American University in Washington, received $10,000 for writing a single, eight-paragraph letter that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Cancer researcher Gio Batta Cori received $20,137 for writing four letters and an opinion piece to the Lancet, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and the Wall Street Journal - nice work if you can get it, especially since the scientists didn't even have to write the letters themselves. Two tobacco-industry law firms were available to do the actual drafting and editing. All the scientists really had to do was sign their names at the bottom."
If the virtual reality created by public relation firms were only limited to selling toothpaste and deodorant we might not get too concerned about it. Falsifying medical research to defend harmful and dangerous products is a troublesome escalation. But there appears to be no limits to the uses of PR and no concern by the users of its ultimate impact. The issue of global warming, which could possibly plunge humanity into a new dark age, is being surrounded by the fog of virtual reality by the practitioners of PR as if the stakes were no more important than the selling of mouthwash.
Rampton and Stauber point out in pp 267-288 of Trust Us that PR firms hired by the major industrial emitters of greenhouse gasses have created dozens of influential sounding front organization such as "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition", "The Global Climate Information Project", "The Information Council for the Environment" and "The Greening Earth Society" which have saturated the media, Congress and the public with industry spin so as to make their case by sheer volume and noise. Since the facts and the scientific community are so overwhelming against them, the object of the public relations onslaught has been to slow down, confuse and defuse public clamor for resolute action. Friends of the Earth International calls this "lobbying for lethargy".
There is legitimate scientific debate about the source and rate of global warming and a lot of the spin addresses that, but a lot doesn't. Some of the dirtier tricks played are:
** An attempt to stimulate anti Kyoto Treaty email to President Clinton by promising to enter writers' names in a $1000 sweepstakes drawing.
** Appealing to anti-abortion activists with the claim that "Al Gore has said abortion should be used to reduce global warming."
** Touting phoney petitions of scientists discrediting the theory of global warming.
** Circulating phoney "scientific" papers made up to look like they had appeared in reputable peer reviewed scientific journals.
** Some industry flacks claim the Earth is actually cooling while other claim that global warming is a good thing.
The scary thing is that lobbying for lethargy is working.
The book is very idealistic/ unrealistic.......2007-04-13
One thing that the authors don't think about is that: Most people are not only not educated enough to understand the specialist jargon that goes with many industrial products, but that if they did try to interpret it *based on their limited information/ understanding* disaster would result.
The authors also don't get into what happens when a well meaning government agency overregulates an industry SO MUCH that it ends up being of benefit to no one. Examples abound-- that were not dealt with in the book.
1. The FDA has such tight regulations on drugs that they end up costing 2-3 times more to produce/ sell to the American public than what they should. And much of this cost is legal fees, excessive testing, and clinical trials.
2. The trucking industry is also something that is heavily regulated. There is a chronic shortage of truck drivers in the industry because there are so many regulations that many people who would be perfectly competent truck drivers can't get a chance at working. (For reference, automobiles kill 40,000+ Americans per year, and trucks kill about 900. An average truck driver might drive 55 hours per week compared to the single digit hours that are driven by a passenger car.)
3. Everyone is whining about the price of gas, but no one knows whether the high cost is because of refineries operating at peak capacity or because of insufficient existing oil supplies. No one will ever be able to test this, since a single refinery has not been built in the last 30 years in the United States.
If people were able to regulate industries by the political process (say, by referenda or voting for candidates that would pass strict legislation), whatever came along after what currently exists would be FAR WORSE.
These authors need to pick up some books on Economics-- specifically ones that deal with information asymmetry (as in, how corporations have a better idea of what they are doing than third party observers).
Other than that, the book is very well written with lots of good examples. It's worth picking up-- in spite of my low rating thereof.
If Everybody Believes Something, It's Probably Wrong.......2006-12-29
If everybody believes something, it's probably wrong! We call that Conventional Wisdom. "Trust Us We're Experts" is one of the few books that I recommend to all of my patients that enter my office. The information in this book has the power to potentially save your life, since it provides the reader with the tools to spot propaganda that's regularly disseminated to the masses.
Americans are the most conditioned, programmed beings on the planet. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased! It is an exhausting and endless task to keep explaining to people how most issues of conventional wisdom are scientifically implanted in the public consciousness by a thousand media clips per day. I feel that Stauber and Rampton do an excellent job at guiding the reader through the PR industry and expert deception that is propagated daily. My recommendation is to buy this book today then kill your TV!
Dr. Matthew J. Loop
- Author of "Cracking the Cancer Code"
Take critical thinking one step further..........2005-11-19
...and use the techniques in this book on the book itself. Sadly, a book with so much promise falls victim to its own PR machine all too often. Face it, if you're going to use critical thinking, use it consistently. If you use it against what you don't like, but cast a blind eye on things you are passionate about, how critical is that, really?
Beware of "Experts" -- Follow the Money! .......2005-07-02
John Stauber tells it like it is, and I wish this book were a bestseller. Readers who can accept these truths may also want to read a highly detailed yet fascinating expose of a huge and profitable industry that has been manipulating science and gambling with your health -- "The Whole Soy Story:The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food" by Kaayla Daniel, The fact that you are probably thinking, "No, we all know that soy is healthy for us" is proof of how thoroughly you've been conned. I was too, but no longer. "Fluoride Deception" by Christopher Bryson is another good one. Thanks to John Stauber, I'm wary of experts and now know enough to follow the money.
Book Description
Using this pocket directory, consumers can be politically conscientious about something they do every day -- shop. "The Blue Pages lists companies' political contributions to the Democratic and Republican parties and rates them by their partisanship. Each listing has a paragraph describing unique features of their business practices that may include charitable causes, social programs, labor practices, domestic partner and child care benefits, nondiscrimination policies, treatment of disabled employees, and environmental impact. Companies are organized alphabetically into 15 sectors, including: Clothing, Shoes, and Accessories, Health and Beauty, Finance, Real Estate and Insurance, and so on, making it easy to find a particular type of product or service. The A to Z index includes thousands of popular brand names and companies. Formatted like the highly successful "Zagat Survey restaurant rating guides, "The Blue Pages is slim and portable, perfect for backpack, glove compartment, or purse, and an ideal gift for the activist.
Customer Reviews:
great.......2007-06-11
very interesting and helpful book. it's a must have for those interested in where top execs spend their political dollars.
Blue Pages Tells a Tale.......2007-02-02
This is an interesting book. It gives those who care an insite into the politics of the corporations you are dealing with. In some cases the choice of company 'A' vs. company 'B' could be decided by who the company supports. Well laid out and easy to use.
LET YOUR WALLET DO THE WALKING THRU THE BLUE PAGES!.......2007-01-15
I'm going to begin this book review with a little story, and if you'll just hang in there, you'll eventually see how it relates to THE BLUE PAGES.
Back in 1972, my Pa was the manager of The Machinists, a Little League baseball team whose star shortstop was my little Bro, Napoleon (a nickname). Early one morning - on "Picture Day" no less, when every boy's uniform should have looked neat and clean - outfielder Graham (always a troublemaker), got sassy with Napoleon, and the boys did what boys sometimes will do. Graham was only about twice Napoleon's size. But we've all heard the old adage, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the will and anger in Napoleon!"
One of the boys told my Pa, "Hey! Mr. McCarthy! Graham and Napoleon are fighting in the outfield!" He saw the knot of boys cheering in the distance and he ran full tilt to break it up. But as he drew nearer, he saw that Graham was getting quite a thrashing, and - as he loved to tell for years afterwards: "I slowed to a jog and then a stroll." Only a bad dad would unnecessarily spoil his son's fun! We've all heard the phrase about taking someone "out to the woodshed." Well, on Picture Day 1972, Napoleon took Graham "out to right field."
A year or two later, while we were both in junior high school, Graham and I arranged an after-school meeting in a nearby alley, and as is always the case, news got out and there was an eager gathering of kids in that alley awaiting the two combatants. I can no longer recall the circumstances, but I'm sure Graham must have instigated the fracas because I never started a fight I didn't start.
Graham threw the first punch - a right hook, which I blocked and countered with my own right hook, introducing my right fist to his left ear. Graham threw the right a second time, I blocked it again, and again bopped him in the left ear. I guess my opponent was thinking, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" or maybe, "Third time's a charm", because he opted for the right hook yet again, and I countered as before. Graham was a slow learner, and whereas he was merely a half-wit when the fight began, he was undoubtedly a half-deaf half-wit when it ended. Which it did when an old man stuck his head over a fence Wilson-like from "Home Improvement" and mentioned "calling the cops." Every kid ran in every direction! Ah yes, beating up on Graham, it was just a McCarthy Family Tradition.
This past Christmas day, our Sister gave Napoleon THE BLUE PAGES as a gift; it was the biggest hit of the day. She gave me a coffee mug with the BILL OF RIGHTS printed on the side. When hot coffee is poured into it, your rights begin disappearing (i.e., as you "wake up" you notice how the federal government is stealing your rights! Clever idea.) But I couldn't keep my hands off of Napoleon's BLUE PAGES. How did I ever live without this book?
THE BLUE PAGES were compiled by a couple of Lefties and intended to inform the Libs which of those big, bad companies are giving money to the Republicans, and you know, not honoring the civil liberties of their employees by failing to offer insurance coverage to their "alternative lifestyle partners", etc. And conversely, which "good" companies should he supported because they support the indefensible and sundry Socialist agendas. But the great thing about this book is that it can be used as unintended. In other words, every time Graham threw his right, he dropped his left and lunged, opening himself up for a powwow (or maybe that should be pow-ow!) between my right fist and his left ear. In essence, I was using Graham's punch against him, just like I'm now using THE BLUE PAGES to monetarily punish the very companies it was meant to assist.
THE BLUE PAGES includes over 4,000 company entries from every consumer sector. It first notes the dollar amount given to the Democrat and/or Republican party by the top three executives for each company during the 2003-04 donation cycle (granted this is now dated and limited information, but it's a start). Then there's a small body of text that highlights the significant lawsuits resolved or pending, history of corporate fines, positive and/or negative ecological impact, the social / sexual / gender policies, and the insurance coverage offered by each company. I'll say this for THE BLUE PAGES, although the astute and even just semiastute reader will detect the "Left Lean", it's more balanced than one would anticipate from a Libby publication. It doesn't shy away from spotlighting infractions against the Left-leaning companies like you might expect. This book really does seem fair enough to be used effectively by both, Socialists (Democrats and Republicans), and true conservatives (me, myself, and I).
I'm an "Independent" Constitutional Conservative, so I detest both the Democrats and the Republicans. But at least the Republican party says the right things even though it's lying about what it intends to do about it. Both parties stand for global, totalitarian Socialism. But the Dems institute it quicker and I'd prefer to see our Republic die slower. For many years, I've been boycotting all goods from Communist countries and others with terrible human rights abuses (such as India and Indonesia). But now I can boycott the most immoral offenders in THIS country as well!
THE BLUE PAGES is one of those books you'll open to look up one thing and find yourself buried in for the next hour. It's filled with interesting info. such as:
* Although PepsiCo gave nearly 70% of its monetary donations to the Republican party, it "received top scores from the Human Rights Campaign 2004 Corporate Equality Index for its pro-gay, -lesbian, -bisexual, and -transgender policies." I wish I drank Pepsi so I could quit!
* The Estee Lauder cosmetics company "earns high marks for its... longtime extension of health care benefits to its employees' same-sex partners." Well, I've been meaning to quit attending those midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show anyway.
* With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good, right? They gave 99% of their dough to the Republicans, but a 2005 report found that their jams advertised as "100% Fruit" often contained less than 50% fruit. Oh well, at least they weren't giving their money to the fruits.
* Good news! I can start eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream because it's now owned by Unilever which gave only 11% of its money to the Dems. I'm gonna gorge myself on ice cream this year, gain 200 pounds and then sue Ben & Jerry for creating an addictive product that contributes to obesity and clogged arteries. (I mean, that's how the liberals do it, isn't it?)
* Get this! Hooters of America paid two million bucks to settle a class action suit filed by men [sic] denied the opportunity to serve as "Hooters Girls." Though it was ordered to create gender-neutral positions, the company still maintains that "being female is reasonably necessary" to be a Hooters Girl. Sounds "reasonable" to me. Now, THAT'S a hoot!
I love this book; it ain't perfect but it's my favorite Christmas gift that I didn't receive this year. I guess I won't be eating at liberal Denny's anymore, but then who wants a Grand Slam Breakfast when they can have a pint of "Cherry Garcia"?
PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR GRAHAM: Hey, buddy, if you're still out there somewhere (i.e., someone hasn't beaten you six feet under yet), my Sister is lookin' fer you. She says it's her turn!
switched to barnes and nobles .......2006-08-29
After I saw how much support the executives at amazon give to kill civilians in Iraq for oil profits I switched to Barnes and Nobles for my book purchases who gave 100% to democrats. I feel its worth the extra dollar to support a company that doesnt support white collar terrorists and also creates great places for people to relax in a community... thank you blue pages for helping me help make america a better place to live.
Who gathered this info anyway....?.......2006-08-04
While the idea of this book is great, and it can be used by people on both sides of the fence, it's questionable as to the validity of this information. The publisher and sources are pretty mysterious, and the book is obviously slanted to one side, as it's title indicates. IF this were a truly neutral publication, wouldn't it be called the "Red & Blue Pages" or something to that effect?
I'm just not sure how accurate this information is, and feel that if people are gullible enough to believe its pages as Gospel, they'll truly believe anything - and probably vote accordingly!
I'll look forward to a more neutral source printing something which is based more on hard evidence.
Customer Reviews:
Not even well-meaning..........2005-09-04
Not everyone who is poor in America is so because of their own fault. This pointless work would have you believe that NO ONE who is poor in America is so because of their own fault Hello? HELLO?
Big business, to look from the MOST cynical viewpoint, would love for everyone to be rich, just so they could buy more. I'd love to see Ken Lay sentenced to death, myself, but Enron is just an exception. Free market capitalism is the most efficient way to get the most people OUT of poverty....
a compelling analysis of America's poverty industry.......2000-06-23
"Merchants of Misery" is a damning indictment of unregulated, free-market capitalism and provides a reader with more than enough material to refute the claim that capitalism is synonymous with fredoom, as espoused by Milton Friedman disciples etcetera.
A lucid, searing and compelling analysis of America's poverty industry, "Merchants of Misery" starts off by illustrating how discriminatory banking practices disallow poor and minority coneumers to partake of their services. By refusing banking services (loans) in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, mainstream banks are creating a vacuum that is being filled by cheque-cashers, high-rate mortgage companies and other financial enterprises eager to fleece the poor.
"Merchants of Misery" provides glimpse after glimpse into the lives of real poverty-stricken people and their efforts to fight back. Fighting back by way of consumer rights attorneys, neighbourhood activists and a coalition of average citizens attacking the purveyors of this despicable industry with lawsuits, protests and alternative financial services. A powerful book.
Another War on the Poor.......1997-11-11
How much misery can one person stand in their lifetime? is it not enough to be poor in America? Must one suffer injurious harm and injury at the hands of rent-to-own centers,check-cashing stores, and pay-day lending operations? Michael Hudson catalogs not just the personal misery of those merely seeking a piece of the American dream, he skillfully exposes the corporations behind the merhcants of misery. The names of these corporate perpetrators are all-too-familiar to us--Ford, Chrysler, and NationsBank. Hudson ironically points out that these same corporations, who are unwilling to provide branch operations in the inner city, are perfectly willing to provide finance subsidiaries, check-cashing operations, rent-to-own centers, and a myriad of loan sharking operations that would make the mafia proud. Hudson points out that few states, particularly southern states, have usury laws which prevent these predators from charging anywhere from 20-1,000% for their merchandise. In one case, a TV set, which could have been purchased for $300-400 went for over $1,200 after all the payments were made to a rent-to-own center. Hudson has written an important, must-be-read book detailing yet another war on the poor--the war penalizing those who merely want a piece of the American dream--and get a piece of the American nightmare.
Amazon.com
This is an attempt to understand Mexico's steep descent into turmoil, which happened rapidly after the uprising in Chiapas on New Year's Day 1994. Following the assassinations of a presidential candidate and then the congressional leader, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had barely left office when the peso collapsed. Pursued by allegations of corruption, Salinas then fled the country. Oppenheimer, a reporter for The Miami Herald, argues that the crisis is the result of nothing grander than a turf war within a decrepit ruling party and that the Chiapas uprising is not something new, just another eruption of the Marxist intellectualism that has long flourished in Latin America.
Book Description
This is an attempt to understand Mexico's steep descent into turmoil, which happened rapidly after the uprising in Chiapas on New Year's Day 1994.Following the assassinations of a presidential candidate and then the congressional leader, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had barely left office when the peso collapsed. Pursued by allegations of corruption, Salinas then fled the country. Oppenheimer, a reporter for The Miami Herald, argues that the crisis is the result of nothing grander than a turf war within a decrepit ruling party and that the Chiapas uprising is not something new, just another eruption of the Marxist intellectualism that has long flourished in Latin America.
Customer Reviews:
Should be required reading.......2003-05-04
This book is so shocking, it left me hoping the author made it all up. It raises many important questions regarding the US relationship with out southern neighbor. A must read.
GOOD HISTORY, WELL RESEARCHED, FAST PACED READ.......2003-04-12
In Bordering on Chaos, Oppenheimer does a very good job of depicting the events and digging up the dirty that led to many of the most important events in mid-1990s Mexico, including the murder of the leading presidential candidate, the rise of the Zapatistas and the choice of Zedillo for president.
However, instead of pure history, we are presented with deep character development for the two main actors in this process, Zedillo himself (the president to be) and Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista movement. In this process, we learn of the political ploys adopted by the PRI, the almost monarchic party that led the country for most of the century. These include forays into education, health, and the most important social services. Another important area is the corruption going on at the top levels of the PRI, requiring, for example, that business people contribute a minimum of [several] million to participate in the government, or else be excluded, with all that it entailed. There is less than I would like to know on Carlos Salinas, the now disgraced but formerly darling leader.
Overall, a good history and a well written book. If you have an interest in Mexico, or in the crisis period of the mid-1990s, this may offer some of the pieces that build up a puzzle of it.
Facinating account.......2001-12-14
This is a great read for anyone wanting to know about Mexico during the 1990s. It's very indepth, at times it feels like maybe Oppenheimer doesn't have all the information to tell the story, but he sure tells a lot of it. It's also not overly biased, like many books about recent Mexican history. Oppenheimer does a great job of setting the scene, explaining who is who, and helping the reader get their arms around all the different factions that make for a volatile social environment in Mexico. I also read "Castro's Final Hour" which was informative, but not as good (especially since the "final hour" was somewhere in the early nineties, and now it's 2001). I'd love to read more of Oppenheimer.
Andresito has excellent contacts.......2001-02-17
Excellent book on recent Mexican history.
Excellent. Give Us More........2000-12-07
The dearth of good books on Mexico makes this one very welcome. It's architecture rests largely on two character portraits: one of Ernesto Zedillo, and the other of the man who calls himself Subcommander Marcos. There is some sketchy material, too, on Carlos Salinas, but it's the type of data that adds to the enigma of the man rather than to our understanding of him.
With Zedillo, one can see why two huge accomplishments coincided with his term in office, and went largely unlauded: 1) the payback of the bailout money ahead of time, and 2) the holding of real elections.
Oppenheimer shows Zedillo to be honest and smart--unlike many Mexican politicians, his degree from an Ivy League school was not just window dressing; he really is a trained economist. But he was not very popular. As an uncorruptible technocrat, he never would have gotten the nod to be the new president if not for the assassination of Colosio, whose campaign manager he was at the time of the murder. But once he was thrust in by Fate to the number one spot, he proved unusually effective. He was not fashionable or charismatic, and not very well loved by the electorate, which understandably blamed him for the devaluation which occurred at the very beginning of his term. Carlos Salinas was fashionable and charismatic, and there can be little doubt that the conditions necessitating the devaluation accumulated during his term.
Even now, with Zedillo gone, those two accomplishments loom over the future more powerfully than anything else that has happened in Mexico for many years.The payback of the bailout money signals that though there may be stumbles on the way to free trade with the US, a quick recovery is possible instead of a long Japanese-style tailspin. The bailout money could have gone into the pockets of well-placed Mexicans, (where now are the millions that the World Bank poured into Russia?) but it did not. I would guess that a lot of credit for that goes to the unfashionably honest Zedillo.
The conversion to a truly multiparty system where it is possible for anyone to win also bodes well for the future, both economically and culturally. Mexico could have started having real elections a long time ago, elections that were more than just costly and showy formalities, but it did not. They didn't have a real election until it was time to replace Zedillo. The irony is that a corrupt system put into power an honest man, who then reformed it.
The other character that makes this book work is Rafael Guillen, AKA Subcommander Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista uprising, who turns out to be neither an Indian nor a peasant nor even a native of Chiapas, but simply a garden variety marxist from a middle class family in Tampico. An undereducated and underworked lout, he acquired a degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico with a dissertation on capitalist oppression (what else?). Employing in this dissertation a style reminiscent of the Unabomber, he revealed the family to be the first "unit of oppression", followed by schools, the second "unit of oppression", and so on. The only thing that can break this ubiquitous oppression, according to the budding Subcommander, is "proletarian politics".
Oppenheimer doesn't go into how this ideological huckster managed to convince the peasants of Chiapas he could help them--that would be an excellent and highly entertaining book in itself--, but he does show clearly what type of person cooked up the rebellion, which did no good for anyone. In short, it was the kind of person without enough sense to use something other than a ski mask (wool?) to disguise himself in the tropics.
By making plain the character of these two men, Oppenheimer adds much to our understanding of what has gone on in Mexico in the last few years. Still, much goes unanswered, such as the actual legality or illegality of the billionaires' banquet, where each of thirty rich men pledged $25 million to the PRI for the election of 1994. Oppenheimer tells of what a scandal there was when the publication El Economista broke the story, but doesn't say whether anyone was prosecuted or even had in fact broken the law. The implication of the secrecy of the banquet and the subsequent scandal, is that there are legal limits on campaign contributions in Mexico, as there are in the US. I'm not sure this is the case.
If in fact there are no legal limits, it becomes a question of whether Mexicans in general disapproved of their richest compatriots throwing their financial weight around. It's to Oppenheimer's credit that he notes the alternative to wealthy men giving dizzying sums to the PRI, which is the Mexican government giving dizzying sums to the PRI, which is the way it had been done since the Revolution.
Frankly, if I were a Mexican taxpayer, I'd rather the PRI got its money from the billionaires.
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The Theory and Practice of Third World Solidarity:
Darryl C. Thomas
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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ASIN: 0275928438 |
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This study examines the development of Third World solidarity within the broader historical context of changing hegemonic power systems, from Pax Britannia to Pax Americana. Thomas focuses on the political, economic, and racial structures that are fundamental to hegemonic supremacy over peripheral and semiperipheral states, and he analyzes the divergent modes of Third World incorporation (subordination) into the world system. He concludes that the racial structure of global apartheid that dominated the world system during the colonial period is re-emerging under the rubric of a "New World Order."
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Business, Politics, and the Practice of Government Relations
Charles S. Mack
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Winning the Influence Game: What Every Business Leader Should Know about Government
ASIN: 1567200575 |
Book Description
Government is the source of the largest cost of doing business. Corporations and business associations must, therefore, manage the business-government relationship with uncommon skill and vigor. Charles Mack, drawing upon his long, successful experience as a practitioner and teacher, asks corporate and association executives to rethink their current government relations programs and implement them in new, more cost-effective and technologically proficient ways. Mack covers all of the tactics and techniques of the field--issues research, strategies, organization and management, direct lobbying, grassroots lobbying, political action, the use of coalitions and trade associations, and public relations. He discusses the use of new computer and communications technologies, benchmarking, lobbying structures and arenas from Washington to the European Union, current management practices (including compensation), the role of interest groups, legislative and electoral politics, and the practice of government relations in other countries. Government relations people will also find a useful discussion of the legislative and political influences that determine how lawmakers vote on issues, how to organize coalitions of diverse groups and get the most of association memberships, the essentials of mobilizing legislative support at the grassroots, and what to do--and not do--when lobbying foreign countries. Mack provides a clear explanation of how government relations works at the federal, state, local, and international levels. Offering practical, day-to-day guidance to experienced and upcoming government relations executives alike, this book will also have important things to say to legislative aides and other public policy administrators. A highly readable and practical guide to lobbying in all its forms, Mack's book emphasizes managing, and how to apply the various means of government relations to achieve specific, important results.
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Business And Government: Methods And Practice (The World of Political Science: the Development of the Discipline Book Series)
David Coen , and
Wyn Grant
Manufacturer: Barbara Budrich
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Customer Reviews:
a highly fragmented reader.......2004-09-23
This book is no more than a highly fragmented reader containing a collection of material from the grey-circuit. It's a disappointment. I was expecting a comparative analysis of modern European public relations.In a globalised world, the Anglo approach is obviously part of the European one.Today, even insiders who may well be experts in their own countries, need to look outwards! Being so fragmented and bitty, it does not begin to present coherent a critical framework for understanding modern European public relations.
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