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"Casino Capitalism": Economist Michael Hudson on What's Behind the Stock Market's Rollercoaster Ride
Black Monday is how economists are describing Monday’s market turmoil, which saw stock prices tumble across the globe, from China to Europe to the United States. China’s stock indices fell over 8 percent on Monday and another 7 percent today. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially fell a record 1,100 points before closing down nearly 600 points. The decline also caused oil prices to plunge to their lowest levels in almost six years. To make sense of what’s really behind the fluctuations in the market, we are joined by economist Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street financial analyst and author of the book, "Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: "Black Monday." That’s how economists are describing yesterday’s market turmoil, which saw stock prices tumble across the globe, from China to Europe to the United States. China’s stock indexes fell over 8 percent Monday and another 7 percent today. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially fell a record 1,100 points before closing down nearly 600 points. The decline also caused oil prices to plunge to their lowest levels in almost six years.
Joining us now to try to make sense of what’s really behind the fluctuations in the market is economist Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street financial analyst and distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. His latest book, Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us.
Thanks for having me again.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Hudson, talk about what happened in China and what happened here in the United States.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, what happened in China doesn’t have very much to do at all with what happened in the United States. Wall Street would love to blame China, and the Obama administration would love to blame China, and Europe would love to blame China. But most of the Chinese stocks went down because small Chinese investors were borrowing from, let’s say, the equivalent of payday loan lenders to buy stocks. There was a lot of small speculation in Chinese stocks pushing it up. But this was an internal Chinese phenomenon. And China, as a whole, doesn’t really have the problems.
The real problem is that we’re still in the aftermath of when the bubble burst in 2008, that all of the growth in the economy has only been in the financial sector, in the monopolies—only for the 1 percent. And it’s as if there are two economies, and the 99 percent has not grown. And so, the American economy is still in a debt deflation. So the real problem is, stocks have doubled in price since 2008, and the economy, for most people, certainly who listen to your show, hasn’t grown at all.
So, finally, the stocks were inflated really by the central bank, by the Fed, creating an enormous amount of money, $4.5 trillion, essentially, to drop over Wall Street to buy bonds that have pushed the yields down so high—so low, to about 0.1 percent for government bonds, that pension funds and investors say, "How can we make money?" So they buy stocks. And they borrowed at 1 percent to buy up stocks that yield maybe 4 percent. But who are the largest people who buy the stocks? They’re the companies themselves that have done stock buybacks. They’re the managers of the companies that have used their earnings, essentially, to push up stock prices so they get more bonuses. Ninety precent of all the earnings of the biggest companies in America in the last five years have gone for stock buybacks and dividends. It’s not being invested. It’s not building new factories. It’s not employing more people.
So, the real problem is that we’re in a nonrecovery in America, and Europe is in an absolute class war of austerity. That’s what the eurozone is, an austerity zone. So that’s not growing. And that’s really what’s happening. And all that you saw on Monday was just sort of like a shift, tectonic shift, is people realizing, "Well, the game is up, it’s time to get out." And once a few people want to get out, everybody sees the game’s up.
AMY GOODMAN: And China?
MICHAEL HUDSON: In China, it’s largely small borrowers who borrowed from intermediate lenders, that have borrowed from the big banks. So a lot of individuals in China that tried to get rich fast by riding the stock market all of a sudden find out that they have a lot of debt to intermediate, you know, non-bank lenders, insiders, people who banks will lend to. It’s like the British banks lending to real estate speculators to lend out to homebuyers. So this is essentially the attempt to get rich by riding the stock market in China went way overboard. Chinese stocks are still above what they were at the beginning of the year. This is not a crisis. This is not very much. It’s just that the artificial increase in the market has now ended some of the artificial push-up. And it’s still artificial, and it will still go down some more.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m surprised you say that what happened in China and what happened in the United States are not related.
MICHAEL HUDSON: They are related in a way, but the U.S. funds have not invested very much in the Chinese stocks. Most of the China fund stocks are in HSBC, which lends to China—the bank. The break first happened in China, but the break itself was within China. And this showed investors—this is a symptom—that what happened in China is going to happen in Europe, and it’s going to happen in the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about China as the world’s second largest economy, and what you think would be the healthiest relationship between China and the United States.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, the economy is not the stock market. China’s economy had to accumulate a large amount of foreign reserves just to withstand the kind of American financial war that brought the Asia crisis of 1997. So China acted defensively. It exported a lot, developed huge international reserves to make itself independent of the West. And now it’s in the middle of shifting away from an export economy to begin to produce for its own people. I mean, why should Chinese workers spend all their lives making goods for Wal-Mart to sell in the United States and Europe? Why don’t they make goods for themselves to raise their own standard of living? That was what China’s doing, and that means that China doesn’t have to export more, and there’s really nowhere to export to, if Europe isn’t growing and the U.S. consumers aren’t spending. Obviously, the attempt is to make China itself grow. But the Chinese took the money; instead of consumer goods, they bought stocks.
AMY GOODMAN: As markets in China plunged Monday, former U.S. treasury secretary and president emeritus of Harvard University, Larry Summers, tweeted this dire prediction: "As in August 1997, 1998, 2007 and 2008 we could be in the [early] stage of a very serious situation." Is he overstating what’s going on?
MICHAEL HUDSON: The question is: What does he mean by "situation"? When he says "situation," he means his constituency, the 1 percent. He doesn’t mean the economy as a whole, the 99 percent. He’s been wrong on almost everything that he’s called. What he’s calling for now is: You have to cut taxes on the 1 percent more; you have to give the 1 percent more money, and it will all trickle down. This is part of his patter talk, trying to support his usual right-wing position. But you have to be very careful when you listen to Larry Summers.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Hudson, your book is titled Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy. Explain what you mean.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, most people think of parasites as sort of just taking, taking money from the economy, and the 1 percent is sort of sucking up all the income from the 99 percent. But in nature, what parasites do, they don’t simply take. In order to take, they have to take over the brain of the host. And economists have a word, "host economy." It’s for a foreign country that lets American investors in. Smart parasites help the host grow. But the parasite, first of all, has to make the host believe that the intruder is actually part of the body, to be nurtured and taken care of. And that’s what’s happened in national income accounting in America and in other countries. The newspapers and the media—not your show, but most of the media—treat the financial sector as if that’s really the economy, and when the stock market goes up, the economy is going up. But the economy isn’t going up at all.
And the financial sector somehow depicts itself as the brains of the economy, and it would like to replace government. What Larry Summers said is what—governments have to pay their debts by privatizing more, essentially, by doing what Margaret Thatcher did in England. That’s his solution to the crisis: All the governments have to do is balance the budget, sell everything to Wall Street on credit, and we won’t have any more problem. And that’s basically—the financial sector is almost at war, not only against labor, as most of the socialists talk about, but against governments and against industry. It’s cannibalizing industry. So now most of the corporations in America are using their income not to do what industrial capitalism did a century ago, not to build more factories and employ more people and make more profits; they’re just using it, as I said, to push it to pay dividends and to buy back their shares and to somehow manipulate the financial sector in the stock prices, not the economy as a whole. So there’s been a divergence between the real economy and what I call the—economists call the FIRE sector—finance, insurance and real estate. And they’re going in separate directions.
AMY GOODMAN: You are—you have been an adviser to the Syriza party in Greece. You’re a friend of the former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. Can you talk about what’s happening there now and what that bodes for the economy, not only in Greece, but in Europe, maybe even here?
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, the story begins, actually, about four years ago, when Greece had a very large foreign debt, taken on basically by the military government and what followed. And it was obvious that as soon as the PASOK, the socialist party, came in, they said, "Look, the debt’s much larger than we thought. We can’t pay it." And they were going to write it down. The IMF looked in and said, "Greece can’t pay the debts. We’ve got to write them down." The board looked in, said they can’t pay the debts. But then the European central banks came in and said, "Look, our job as central bankers is to support the banks. Greece owes the debt to the, essentially, French banks and German banks, and we’ve got to support them." So, despite the fact that the IMF was pushing for a debt write-down four years ago—the head of the IMF at that time, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, wanted to run for president of France, and he was told by French President Sarkozy, "Well, wait a minute, if French banks hold most of Greek debts, you can’t, at the IMF, say that we’re going to write down the debts." So they didn’t. And meanwhile, the eurozone said, "We won’t let you, the IMF, be part of our program, the troika, if you don’t pretend that Greece can pay the debt."
So Greece was left with a huge debt. It was pushed into depression. The GDP fell worse than it did in the 1930s. Finally, the Syriza party came in, in January, and Varoufakis and Tsipras thought, "Well, then, OK, we can explain to the finance ministers of Europe that you can’t expect to push Greece into a depression, push more austerity, and somehow austerity will enable us to repay the debt. That’s crazy." And he thought that he could reason with them. And the Europeans, who he was reasoning with, the central bankers, said, "We’re not here to talk about economics. We’re lawyers. We’re here to collect money. It doesn’t matter that you’re going to go into a depression. It doesn’t matter that you’re going to have to have another 20 percent of your population emigrate. We’re only here to collect the payments. And if you don’t pay, then we’re going to pull the plug."
And they pulled the plug on the Greek banks a few months ago and said, "We’re not going to accept any of the bank transfers, payments with Greek banks here. So, if you’re exporting and you want credit for export, you’re not going to give it to you. We’re going to treat Greece like America treated Cuba and America treated North Korea. You’re going to be the North Korea of Europe if you don’t succumb, surrender and pay." And that’s why Tsipras said, "Oh, my—we don’t want to bring an absolute, you know, total breakdown, because that would bring the right wing to power." Varoufakis said, well, he AGREES that there’s no alternative but to sort of surrender for the present and try to join hands with Italy, Spain and Portugal, but he wasn’t going to be the administrator of the depression. So you had the referendum, and the Greeks now say, "Well, no matter what, we’re not going to pay." And the eurozone says, "Then we’re going to just wreck you, or smash and grab."
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you very quickly about presidential politics, about two of the Republican presidential candidates, Jeb Bush and John Kasich. Both worked for Lehman Brothers, Kasich after he ran for—after he was a congressman; Jeb Bush, ACCORDING to The Wall Street Journal, Bush signed on with Lehman after leaving the Florida Governor’s Mansion, making it clear he wanted to work as a hands-on investment banker. I believe he made something like $14 million working for Lehman and then Barclays.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, almost—both parties are basically run by Wall Street. The Democratic Party, ever since Bill Clinton, was run by Robert Rubin. And all of the secretaries of the treasury, the officials, have basically come from Goldman Sachs, especially Tim Geithner. One of the problems in Greece, by the way, was that Obama and Geithner, coming from the Rubin group, met at the Group of Eight meetings and told—were told, basically, Greece, "You have to pay, because the American banks have made so many big bets on Greek bonds that if Greece doesn’t repay"—this is back in 2011—"then the American banks will go under, and if we go under, we’re going to pull Europe down." So, the American banks basically—we’re talking about Wall Street investment firms. They don’t—they’re called investment bankers, but they don’t invest. They gamble. And we’re really much more in CASINO capitalism than finance capitalism.
So you have Wall Street people basically running politics, whether they’re the actual politicians—Obama didn’t work on Wall Street, but he worked with the real estate families. No matter who the president is, they’re going to appoint Treasury heads and Fed, Federal Reserve, heads from Wall Street. Wall Street has a veto power on all the major Cabinet POSITIONS, and so, essentially, the economy is being run by the financial sector for the financial sector. That’s the problem with politics in America today.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Hudson, thank you very much for being with us, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street financial analyst, distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. His latest BOOK, Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and DEBT Bondage Destroy the Global Economy.
When we come back, we look at South Sudan. A new film is out. Stay with us.
As Peace Talks Collapse in South Sudan, Film Shows "Pathology of Colonialism" Tearing Apart Nation
Peace talks between South Sudan’s warring sides have failed to reach a deal to end a civil war which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the world’s youngest nation. Last week, the United States proposed implementing a United Nations arms embargo on South Sudan and new sanctions unless the government signs a peace deal to end the conflict. Now the situation in South Sudan is the subject of a new documentary, "We Come as Friends," by Austrian director Hubert Sauper that provides an aerial view of the conflict in Sudan from a shaky, handmade two-seater plane. The film depicts American investors, Chinese oilmen, United Nations officials and Christian missionaries struggling to shape Sudan according to their own visions, while simultaneously applauding the alleged "independence" of the world’s newest state. What emerges is a devastating critique of the consequences of cultural and economic imperialism. We speak with Hauper and feature excerpts from the film, which debuts this week in theaters.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, peace talks between South Sudan’s warring sides failed to reach a deal to end a civil war which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the world’s youngest nation. Last week, the United States proposed implementing a U.N. arms embargo on South Sudan and new sanctions unless the government signs a peace deal to end the conflict.
South Sudan is the subject of a new documentary about modern-day colonialism in Africa. Austrian director Hubert Sauper’s We Come as Friends provides an aerial view of the conflict in Sudan from a shaky, handmade two-seater plane. The film depicts American investors, Chinese oilmen, United Nations officials and Christian missionaries struggling to shape Sudan according to their own visions, while simultaneously applauding the alleged independence of the world’s newest state. What emerges is a devastating critique of the consequences of cultural and economic imperialism. The film has just made its theatrical debut in New York and will be opening in select theaters nationwide. BBC Worldwide North America has acquired full rights to film.
Well, Democracy Now!'s Nermeen Shaikh and I recently sat down with director Hubert Sauper to discuss We Come as Friends. The film took him six years to make. His 2004 film, Darwin's Nightmare, was nominated for an Academy Award. I began by asking Hubert Sauper about the message he hopes to convey in this new film.
HUBERT SAUPER: We Come as Friends is my latest—latest film. The title itself includes already this most cynical line that you can imagine, of somebody trying to take over a land and say, "We are here as your friend. We just want to help," which is basically the case. And We Come as Friends is a tentatif. I was trying to describe the pathology, the pathological mindset of colonialism, which is not over. It’s still happening. And one of the elements that are very important of colonialism is, of course, land grab, since colonialism is taking the land of someone else, and not only the land, but also the workforce and the control over the people on the land.
So, I found this specific story of one specific land grab in South Sudan, as South Sudan became independent, of 600,000 acres being taken away from a local community, basically, by one contract, by one company, by one man, basically, from Texas. And Anuradha and the Oakland Institute had researched it, and I was trying to basically track down—took me a week to find this community in the middle of nowhere. I go there with my little airplane, which I had to make the movie.
AMY GOODMAN: Wait, wait, before we continue with this, you can’t just gloss over that. In your previous films, you’re always showing airplanes as sort of a symbol of globalization and also what comes in and out of a country, whether it’s weapons going in and resources going out. But here, you made your own plane.
HUBERT SAUPER: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: How?
HUBERT SAUPER: Well, it’s not rocket science to make a very low—
AMY GOODMAN: I think it is rocket science.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: It’s airplane science.
HUBERT SAUPER: It’s not rocket science. It’s kind of rocket science to make a documentary film, I must say. But it is not rocket science to make a little airplane, which is built like in the 1920s, you know, and it has a little engine, it carries two people. If—
AMY GOODMAN: Wasn’t it an engine used for a drone?
HUBERT SAUPER: Well, the same engines are used for drones, actually. They’re made in Europe. But that’s another story. So—but I was a bit uptight, because I could have been mistaken by being a drone, you know? But we were in it. It was not unmanned. It was manned by two filmmakers, myself and my co-pilot, Barney Broomfield, who is a very fine filmmaker from America. And so—
AMY GOODMAN: And he dared to get in this plane with you from your home outside Paris?
HUBERT SAUPER: Yeah, he dared, because he knew we’re working on the film, and he’s dedicated to filmmaking. And he was actually sweating and terrified by airplanes, but he learned how to fly over the civil war zone, basically.
AMY GOODMAN: You flew from your home in Paris to?
HUBERT SAUPER: From—well, I’ve got a small, little old farm outside of Paris, in Burgundy, and I started to build with my little film crew this airplane, called Sputnik. Sputnik is a Russian word for the "companion." I don’t know, you may have pictures of it. And from my backyard, I took off with this airplane to Tunisia, to Libya, which was still in the hands of Gaddafi. It was not a very pleasant experience, I must say. I had to—it took me a month to go through Libya and through Egypt. I had to deal with a lot of, you know, very half-crazy people or totally crazy people in uniforms. And I had to explain that I was not working for Mossad, not for the CIA. And I couldn’t—
AMY GOODMAN: Why would they be crazy to think that? I mean, this little plane that’s flying over one country after another—
HUBERT SAUPER: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: I don’t think it would be allowed in the United States.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: It certainly would not be.
HUBERT SAUPER: Well, you know, I mean, if I were CIA, I would maybe come up with this kind of ideas, you know, but I’m not working for the CIA. But I don’t want to be hired by them as a—I don’t think they want to hire me anyway, so. But as a filmmaker, what you have to do as a filmmaker is to come up with an idea and to come up with a way to find access to your idea, access to your subjects and access to your locations, you know? And when you want to make a film in a war-torn zone like Sudan, and you start calling the minister of information and say, "Can I have an official invitation?" or something—two weeks later, it’s another minister of information, first of all—second, the minister of information, the old one, asks you for $10,000 for a letter. So you don’t even start doing that. This is—it’s not working. So, basically, you have to come up with some kind of anarchist approach, you know, because it is an area of anarchy anyway. So if you’re not an anarchist yourself, you’re eaten, literally and figuratively, or shot, you know. So, you have to kind of find a way to infiltrate in an environment which is hostile, but which you can still be in, you know? So, how can you—how can you film Chinese oil fields in the middle of nowhere, where there’s no access to roads?
AMY GOODMAN: In Sudan.
HUBERT SAUPER: In Sudan, when all around there’s shooting and civil war. You have to kind of find a way to get there. You have to be friends with the president of China, or you can also just fall from the sky and say, "Well, I’m here, guys. So, I’m sorry, I had to land," and make friends. And usually, I mean, there are really friendly people everywhere. And when you can make people laugh—you know, like our plane was so small and ridiculous that everyone was like laughing at us, including ourselves. It’s just like a big joke, and it’s kind of a Trojan horse. And the whole thing is a joke, no?
And we wore, you know, pilots’ uniforms. At one point—we didn’t do this in the beginning, but at one point we were so harassed by military, every time we landed somewhere, landing as nice guys from France with our own airplane, and they wouldn’t believe us that we were just making a film, so we ended up dressing up as pilots, airline pilots, with four stripes. I put myself four stripes, as a captain, on my shoulders, like the dictators who put their own crowns on. And it was so—it was so ridiculous. And we were just, just laughing. We were just—this is so odd, you know? And then, as soon as we got to the next military camp, the soldiers would salute us, and the commander would invite us for tea, and they would call us "captain." And so—and so, suddenly, we had kind of mutated ourselves into what I hate most. I can’t stand uniforms. It’s the worst thing.
And uniforms, as itself, is a theme of the film, because uniforms is a colonial—is a part of the colonial legacy. The colonizers came up and put, you know, naked people into dresses and uniforms and boots and lockstep, and all this stuff is a colonial—is a part of the colonial legacy.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Let’s go back to the issue of land grabs and play a clip from We Come as Friends. In this scene, a tribal leader in South Sudan comes to understand that he has leased about 2,300 square miles of community land to a Dallas-based company called the Nile Trading & Development Corporation, or NTD. The contract is explained to him by a group of political activists from Juba.
ACTIVIST 1: "NTD has full rights to exploit all natural resources in the leased land. This includes—One: Right to develop, produce and exploit timber, forestry resources on the leased land."
ACTIVIST 2: [translated] It is written that they will cut the trees on your land.
ACTIVIST 1: "Three: Right to engage in agricultural activities, the cultivation of biofuel crops and palm-oil trees. Four: Right to exploit, explore, develop, mine, produce and/or exploit petroleum, natural gas, and other hydro-carbon resources for both local and export markets, for 75,000 Sudanese pounds, equivalent to approximately U.S. dollars 25,000."
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was a clip from We Come as Friends. The amount of land that was sold, 2,300 square miles, is approximately the equivalent of the greater metropolitan Chicago area. Hubert Sauper, can you talk about that and the significance of these land grabs in Sudan, South Sudan?
HUBERT SAUPER: As I said before, that this specific one single land deal, I knew about through the research of the Oakland Institute, which is based in America. And this contract was very officially signed by the government of South Sudan, or Southern Sudan then. And when it became known, through the Oakland Institute, and through the BBC, actually—BBC had made a show about it, a radio show about it—then the [inaudible] government of Southern Sudan suddenly started to be afraid, started to kind of back out, and they said, "Well, it’s not—it was a mistake, and the contract is now neutralized." You know? But it doesn’t mean that things are now fine; it just means that there’s going to be another contract, another layer of another attempt. You know, it’s not—this specific contract, actually, was—apparently, is out of—is no longer valid, because of the work of the Oakland Institute and because of the BBC coverage of it. That’s it, you know.
And me, as a filmmaker, I was there with this group of activists, and we read out the content of the contract to the man who had signed it, who had signed off his land, who was apparently unaware of what he was—had been signing and was kind of forced to sign. And it’s not—and why I used this in the movie is not to kind of denounce the terrifying reality of this very contract. I was trying to make a link to another historic legacy to colonialism, which was the technique of how to steal somebody’s land.
Again, King Leopold of Belgium, for example, he was using the services of Morton Stanley, the famous explorer. He sent—King Leopold sent Morton Stanley into the Congo and said, "You sail up the River Congo, and you take all the local chiefs, and you make all of them sign off their land to the king of Belgium." And those people at that time, 120 years ago, of course, didn’t know how to write, you know? So they put down the fingerprints. The colonialists or Stanley’s assistants would hold their hands and kind of make some kind of signature. And that was the end of many cultures. And it was the end of the life of millions of Congolese, by the way, because then they became forced labor. They had to produce caoutchouc. How do you say? Rubber, for export at the time. And it was just another example.
But these kind of things are always referred to as historic. And like I said, New York was sold off for a piece of—for a cup of tea or something, you know? And it’s not historic. It’s present. It’s happening today. And land grab is a very, very terrifying today reality. The center of Africa is in great danger to be taken over by foreign powers, by companies, by—
AMY GOODMAN: By companies, by countries.
HUBERT SAUPER: —countries.
AMY GOODMAN: You talk about China, and you talk about the United States. Let’s go to another clip. This is the U.S. ambassador to South Sudan, Barrie Walkley, speaking at the opening of a new power plant in Kapoeta near the Kenyan border. At one point, his address is interrupted by a protester.
BARRIE WALKLEY: On behalf of the people of the United States of America, I’m delighted to congratulate the organizers of this timely event. The Kapoeta power plant can today serve approximately 725 customers through 20 kilometers of completed electric lines and in the future will be able to serve up to 900 customers. [inaudible] Local community members provided much of the labor required to build this plant. Their sweat and dedication—
OFFICIAL: [translated] Get him out!
BARRIE WALKLEY: —the electricity and close [inaudible]. This morning in the remarks, there have been several references to light. During the opening prayers, reverend father talked about light. The county commissioner, in his remarks, also spoke of the importance of light. The children sang songs of light. Those remarks, those references to light, were literally and figuratively appropriate, because today we are literally and figuratively bringing light.
AMY GOODMAN: "Bringing light," the U.S. ambassador to South Sudan, Barrie Walkley. Describe this whole scene for us.
HUBERT SAUPER: Yeah, again, We Come as Friends is a study of the pathology of colonialism. And a lot of things that if you’re a part of a pathology, and all of us, I would say, you don’t necessarily realize the grave—the implication of what you say sometimes, you know? And one of the things that the colonizers did was using religion. The Arabs were using Islam, and the West or, let’s say, the Europe or America were using Christianity as a tool. And the argument of Christianity was we have to bring peace, we have to bring civilization, we have to bring God and light versus darkness. Africa was always referred to as the "dark continent" or the "black continent" or the "shadow land" or whatever. So we were obviously civilized and the light. And these words are so engraved into our souls that the ambassador of the United States speaks it out. He says, literally and figuratively, "We bring light," saying, "We will electrify your village, and then you will become civilized and not as savage anymore, as you can see"—I’m not saying this, I’m just quoting.
So, what is behind it? I don’t know. It’s good intention. I mean, I don’t think—I think it’s an elegant person, this ambassador. You know, he’s doing what he has to do. He works for his country. He brings the good words; he says, "We come as friends." He opens a power station, electricity in an area, by the way, where people are starving and were dying from famine. In this very proximity of this electric power station, people are dying from starvation, which is not the fault of—I mean, I’m not blaming the ambassador. I’m just saying that these realities are so crazy. And when you think of it, why, of all places, in this very village, Kapoeta, was suddenly an electric power station? And there may be a connection. And I’m just suggesting something, which I cannot prove now. But three-quarters or so of all the reserves of gold in South Sudan—and it’s a huge amount of gold—and three-quarters of that gold is in this very spot, around Kapoeta.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: You talked about the role of Christianity and of missionaries—
HUBERT SAUPER: Yes.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: —in colonialism. So, I want to play another clip from We Come as Friends. Here, an evangelist from Oklahoma is preaching to a group of students in his missionary school in that same small town of Kapoeta near the Kenyan border in South Sudan.
MISSIONARY: I want to tell you all that I am very proud of you. We need leaders who are young men and women of God, who trust in God and know that he will answer your prayers. When what I want is what God wants, that means when I pray, I’m praying just like Jesus prayed, so that you believe that whatever you pray for, God will do. But you know what the first requirement is for God to answer your prayers? First you must allow him to change your heart. Thy heart has to change.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was a clip from We Come as Friends. Hubert Sauper, can you talk about the significance of these American evangelicals in South Sudan?
HUBERT SAUPER: Significance. Well, again, you know, We Come as Friends is a film about the mindset of colonialism and about the mechanism of colonialism. And European colonialism was very much accompanied and driven and supported by religious ideas and religious forces and religious people. And so, as it happens today, the center of Africa is being fought over by many empires. China wants the oil. Many Asian countries want the oil. Arabic countries also want land to grow food, because you don’t grow much food in Saudi Arabia, for example. And these countries are a lot of times using religion also to come to certain regions.
South Sudan was, par definition, colonized, I mean, by the North Sudan over many years. The North Sudanese governments, Muslim, Islamic regimes, were trying to send Islamic missionaries to South Sudan, were trying to make sure that naked children wear clothes and wear uniforms and march in step. They gave them guns, you know, to fight, etc. And now we, the Western people, are just doing the same. You know, we are sending our missionaries. They are also trying to dress up naked children. They’re trying to make—give them uniforms. We are giving those people arms.
And then they go after each other, and then we call it tribal wars. And the tribal wars, like now, at this very moment in South Sudan, there’s tribal clashes. There’s terrible tribal clashes between two tribes, the Dinkas and the Nuer. Why are they fighting? They’re really fighting because the warlords of the Dinkas and the Nuer—the warlord—the chief of the Dinkas basically is the president of South Sudan at this moment, and his opponent is called Riek Machar. He’s a Nuer. And to make a long story short, these warlords are fighting over who has the control over the resources and who has the power. And then they’re taking the whole country hostage. And they’re saying, "We are the Nuer," "We are the Dinka," "We should go after the others."
And in the reports in the American press and even in the BBC, all you hear is about the Nuer are fighting against the Dinkas, and basically suggesting those savage Africans fight against each other, and now what we have to do is come in, bring the U.N. and bring the missionaries and bring peace. But nobody really talks about the source of the problem is already the presence of money and people who want the oil and people who give the arms to people, to these groups, etc.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about the competition between China and the United States?
HUBERT SAUPER: The same pattern, same story. You know, the Sudan—the Sudan was split into two countries in 2011. And coincidentally, the new border cuts through exactly through the places where there’s oil. I don’t know why. Can you explain why? The North and the South Sudan are split up, and exactly the new border, which divides—which is, you know, divide and rule is a part of the problem in Africa. Borders are a part of the problem. So this new border was created. It’s 2,000 kilometers long. And as soon as it had been created, it was on fire, because it’s where the oil is. You know, the end of my movie, We Come as Friends, is, by the way, the first—the end of my movie is the first war on the border between the North Sudan and South Sudan. And now, actually, at this point, the South Sudan, in itself, is on fire. And again, two groups and warlords are fighting over—basically fighting over oil.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Hubert Sauper, director of We Come as Friends. The film has just opened in theaters now.
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, the rapper Boots Riley, artist and writer and activist. Stay with us.
Hip-Hop Legend Boots Riley on #BlackLivesMatter & How His Cousin Was Accused of Shooting a Cop
Legendary hip-hop artist Boots Riley has just published a new book, "Tell Homeland Security–We Are the Bomb," of his songs, commentaries and stories from his work with the Oakland hip-hop group The Coup and the band Street Sweeper Social Club. Riley has been deeply involved in political ACTIVISM for decades, from taking part in protests against police brutality to supporting Occupy Oakland to speaking out on Palestinian issues. Last week, he joined more than 1,000 black activists, artists and scholars in signing on to a statement supporting "the liberation of Palestine’s land and people." He also describes how his his cousin, Carlos Riley, who was accused of shooting a police officer in Durham, North Carolina, in 2012 was just found not guilty of shooting the police officer.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: "Dig It," by The Coup, here on Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace REPORT. I’m Amy Goodman. Tell Homeland Security—We Are the Bomb, that’s the name of a new book by the legendary hip-hop artist Boots Riley. He’s best known for his work with the Oakland hip-hop group The Coup and the band Street Sweeper Social Club. Boots Riley has been deeply involved in political ACTIVISM for decades, from taking part in protests against police brutality to supporting Occupy Oakland, to speaking out on Palestinian issues. Last week, Boots joined more than a thousand black activists, artists, scholars in signing on to a statement supporting, quote, "the liberation of Palestine’s land and people."
Boots Riley has also been speaking out in defense of his cousin, Carlos Riley, who was accused of shooting a police officer in Durham, North Carolina, in 2012. Well, just two weeks ago, jurors found Carlos Riley not guilty of shooting the police officer. Boots Riley joins us here in studio.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. Let’s start with your cousin and what actually happened in this highly unusual trial and what he was accused of.
BOOTS RILEY: Yeah. So, a cop stopped my cousin, early morning in December 2012. For what, we don’t know, because somehow they lost the records of why he was stopped. And the cop started assaulting my cousin, verbally told him, "I’m going to kill you," started to pull out his gun and shot himself while he was pulling out his gun.
AMY GOODMAN: The police officer shot his own self, himself?
BOOTS RILEY: The police officer shot himself in the leg while he pulled out his own gun. And this is actually somewhat common. And my cousin took the gun from the officer, helped him get out of the car so he could get away. And he had to take the gun because, as we’ve seen from Walter Scott, he could have been shot while he was getting away. And he didn’t want to be there while the police got there, because we wouldn’t have been talking about this story right now. And so, he ran away. He turned himself in three hours later.
He was accused of shooting the cop, accused of assaulting the cop and accused of robbing the gun from the cop, as if it was just a robbery. As we know, he took the gun so that he wouldn’t be shot. All the physical evidence, all the witnesses that the state brought to trial—this went to trial—they all corroborated my cousin’s story. But I think the DA thought that just the simple fact that there was a black man that didn’t let a cop—this was a black cop—but didn’t let a cop shoot him, they thought that the jury would be incensed and find him guilty anyway, even though all the physical evidence and witnesses backed up my cousin’s side of the story. So he was found not guilty of everything but common law robbery. And the reason that they found him guilty of common law robbery had to do with the judge’s instructions. The judge didn’t allow the jury to think about him taking the gun as self-defense.
AMY GOODMAN: So the common law robbery was, they were saying, robbing the police officer of the gun—
BOOTS RILEY: Of his gun.
AMY GOODMAN: —that he, the police officer, had shot himself with.
BOOTS RILEY: Yeah, yeah, after threatening to kill my cousin. And the cop even testified on the stand that when my cousin had the gun, he looked at him and said, "I don’t believe you just tried to kill me." And then he helped the cop out and left. And by this time, the cop was in his car. It was really—it was crazy.
AMY GOODMAN: We have the police’s own gunshot report—
BOOTS RILEY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —that we are showing for our viewers. And for listeners, you can go online at democracynow.org. It states one shot fired by officer.
BOOTS RILEY: Exactly.
AMY GOODMAN: Now—
BOOTS RILEY: And the DA saw this. The whole police department knew this.
AMY GOODMAN: But this didn’t come up in the trial?
BOOTS RILEY: This didn’t—this was not presented by the state during the trial. But the state knew about it. So, they tried to railroad my cousin. They tried to steal 38 years of his life. He’s still in jail right now for robbing the gun that—robbing the officer of the gun that he wanted to kill him—that the officer wanted to kill him with. So there are appeals going on.
The DA tried to get the—the first time this lawyer had ever seen that. This lawyer, Charns, Attorney Charns, had—has been doing police brutality cases for 32 years, and the DA tried to get him thrown off the case, had a private session with the judge, tried to get him taken off the case for incompetence. First time that this has ever happened. The lawyer actually put this on the record in court and stayed on the case. But so, the state gets to decide who gets to do the appeal for my cousin, and they don’t want Attorney Charns on there, because he did a good job. And what’s more, so many public defenders wouldn’t take my cousin’s case, because it was publicized as a—I suspect because it was publicized as a guy shoots a cop.
AMY GOODMAN: Though he was acquitted of this.
BOOTS RILEY: Exactly.
AMY GOODMAN: And the police’s own report said that the cop shot himself.
BOOTS RILEY: Exactly. They knew from the get-go.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about your book, Tell Homeland Security—We Are the Bomb. What does it mean?
BOOTS RILEY: Well, in one way, you could take it as braggadocio, right? That we are the bomb, like we’re the—but in reality, we are—we are the weapon against the state. We are the weapon against the ruling class.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you perform a rap for us, one of—the shorter one, as we have not a lot of time?
BOOTS RILEY: OK. This one is from a song called "Ghetto Blaster." It’s:
Listen to the, shotgun sonata from personas non grata
With a plot to rock harder than the Second Intifada
I do drink firewater but I’m more like Hiawatha
and will slaughter, slaughter, slaughter, your armada
Inform your scholars that our alma mater’s squalor
So my squad’ll pull your collar at your black-and-white gala
We’re canon fodder for dollars both under Bush and Obama
I’m not a baller I’m a brawler callin y’all to come harder
I’m from the land o’ the free labor that planted the plan of the
black-and-branded to scram it over to Canada
A fan of radical bandits and bandanas
who crammed in the banana clip and rat-a-tat-tat-tatted-a
They spat the grammar to scam y’all to clamor up
The damn ladder to grab for Excalibur
Not a rap battler, but the next calibre
Catch the program and not just my pentameter.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Boots Riley, American poet, rapper, songwriter, producer, screenwriter. We just have about 15 seconds. The importance of art in bringing that to your political activism?
BOOTS RILEY: Well, art is the—are the words between the words. It unifies us and allows us to know that other people are thinking the same thing we are. And it’s part of—an essential part of building a movement.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to continue the conversation and post it online at democracynow.org. Boots Riley, Tell Homeland Security—We Are the Bomb.
Headlines:
Thousands of Migrants Rush to Reach Hungary Before Border Is Sealed
As many as 10,000 people fleeing violence in their home countries are surging through the Balkans in efforts to reach Hungary before the country seals its border. Many of the people are fleeing wars in Syria and Afghanistan. They are traveling by buses, on foot, in wheelchairs and wheelbarrows. Once people reach Hungary, they can travel freely throughout most of the European Union. The Hungarian government has said it will completely seal its border by August 31.
German Refugee Shelter Goes Up in Flames as Merkel Denounces Violence
Meanwhile, in Germany, a sports hall that has been converted into an emergency refugee shelter went up in flames this morning in the eastern town of Nauen. The town has seen anti-immigrant protests by right-wing groups in recent days. The fire comes after right-wing protesters clashed with police during demonstrations against a newly opened migrant shelter in a small town outside of Dresden over the weekend. German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced anti-immigrant violence by right-wing protesters on Monday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "There was an aggressive, xenophobic mood that is in no way acceptable. It’s repulsive to see how right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis are voicing their hatred. But it is just as disgraceful to see how German citizens, and even families with children, are supporting this by marching along with them."
Chinese Stock Market Continues to Fall; Dow Jones Down 600 Pts Monday
In news from financial markets, the Chinese stock market has continued to drop, following a dramatic plunge yesterday dubbed "Black Monday." The decline shook markets around the world. After the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell at 9:30 a.m. Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Index immediately plummeted a record 1,000 points before eventually closing down nearly 600 points. In China, the decline continued Tuesday, sparking fears among Chinese investors that the world’s second largest economy may be much weaker than expected.
Jerry Xu, Chinese investor: "I think it must be an omen of a coming global financial crisis. Not only is it the Chinese stock market, but also Europe and the United States stock markets dropped a lot yesterday. It’s not only China’s business. It may be an omen of a coming financial crisis for the world. So I think it’s pretty serious. I’m not optimistic about the future of the market."
Over the last three days, the market’s decline has erased nearly $3 trillion in value from stocks globally. In the United States, stock prices are expected to stabilize today. We’ll speak with economist Michael Hudson after headlines.
Philippines: Marine Testifies to Choking Transgender Filipino Woman
In news from the Philippines, a U.S. marine has testified in court that he choked a Filipino transgender woman until she was unconscious, but he claims he did not kill her. U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton is on trial for the 2014 murder of 26-year-old Jennifer Laude, who was found dead in a hotel room near a former American naval base that still frequently hosts U.S. ships. He testified Monday that he punched and choked Laude after learning she was transgender. The case has strained relations between the U.S. and the Philippines, with some Filipino lawmakers calling for changes to the rules permitting American military forces in the country, which is a former U.S. colony.
North and South Korea Agreement to Defuse Rising Tensions
North and South Korea have reached an agreement to defuse the rising tensions between the two countries, following an exchange of artillery fire and threats of increased military action last week. South Korean leaders agreed early Tuesday morning to shut off a loudspeaker that has been broadcasting anti-North Korea propaganda near the border, while North Korea indirectly acknowledged responsibility for planting landmines that recently killed two South Korean soldiers. The South Korean director of national security announced the agreement.
Kim Kwan-jin: "North Korea expressed regret over a recent landmine incident in the South’s side of Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that wounded the South’s soldiers. South Korea agreed to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the MDL from 12:00 (0300 GMT) local time on August 25. North Korea agreed to end the quasi-state of war."
Court Orders Russia to Pay for Seizing Greenpeace Ship Arctic Sunrise
A court in the Netherlands has ORDERED Russia to pay compensation for costs and damages after seizing the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise and arresting its crew during a protest against Arctic oil drilling in 2013. The group of 28 activists and two journalists were jailed for two months for trying to stop Russian oil drilling in the Arctic. The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the court’s authority.
Wildfires in Central Washington Now Largest in State History
In news from Washington state, officials say the wildfires burning across more than a quarter of a million acres in central Washington are now the largest in the state’s history. More than 1,000 firefighters and 700 National Guardsmen are battling the blazes. Meanwhile, in eastern Washington, fires have forced the school district on the Spokane Indian Reservation to postpone the BEGINNING of school due to poor air quality and firefighting on nearby roads.
Obama to Visit the Arctic Following Approval of Oil Drilling Permits
The wildfires come as a new STUDY links climate change to drier conditions that are helping fuel increasingly strong wildfires across the Pacific Northwest. Meanwhile, at the end of the month, President Obama will visit the Arctic, where he will emphasize the impact of climate change. The visit comes on the heels of the Obama administration’s decision to issue the final permit clearing the way for Arctic oil drilling.
Obama Unveils New Measures to Promote Solar Energy
Meanwhile, President Obama has announced new measures to promote solar energy including bolstering a federal program to help people switch to using ROOFTOP SOLAR PANELS to generate their electricity. Obama’s speech at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas Monday came on the heels of the administration’s announcement earlier this month of a plan to cut carbon emissions by an average of 32 percent.
President Obama: "So we’re taking steps that allow more Americans to join this revolution with NO MONEY DOWN. You don’t have to share my passion for fighting climate change. A lot of Americans are going solar and becoming more energy-efficient not because of tree huggers — although trees, you know, are important, just want you to know — but because they’re cost cutters. They like saving money. And I’m all for consumers saving money, because that means they can spend it on other stuff. Solar isn’t just for the green crowd anymore. It’s for the green eyeshade crowd, too."
Ferguson: Judge Withdraws 10,000 Arrest Warrants in Court Changes
A judge in Ferguson, Missouri, has withdrawn as many as 10,000 arrest warrants as part of a series of changes to the court system announced Monday. The ORDER withdraws all municipal warrants issued before 2015. It also changes the conditions for pretrial release and creates a pathway for people to have drivers’ licenses reinstated if the suspension was due to failure to pay fines or show up to court. A Justice Department probe found the city has been targeting African Americans for arrest and then profiting off of their fines. The changes come after a year of widespread protests over the police killing of Michael Brown.
Women in CA Book Club Kicked Off Train for #LaughingWhileBlack
And in California, members of a women’s book club say the company running a tour through the Napa Valley kicked them off the TRAIN because they are black. Ten of the 11 members of the book club are African-American. They say they were ordered off the train on Saturday by the company Napa Valley Wine Train because they were laughing too loudly. One of the women is 83 years old. The move immediately drew criticism for being racially motivated, and the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack began trending on Twitter.
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