Debt and Journalistic Hypocrisy

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/28/1010832606/road-deal-with-china-is-blamed-for-catapulting-montenegro-into-historic-debt

There has been a steady stream of such stories in recent days. The Anti-China campaign is in full swing. It has become so normative to see this kind of reporting it hardly raises an eyebrow anymore. But it should. In fact there should be a good deal of ire and even outrage.

For years, people such as journalists and activists have tried to report on the evils of the IMF, World Bank and other Western-oriented banking institutions and yet there's been very little attention given to them, very little coverage in mainstream circles.

When the Battle of Seattle erupted in 1999 at the WTO conference many people I knew were struggling to understand what was being protested. And why? Because mainstream news refuses to cover the story.

For decades these institutions which function as financial arms of Washington, Brussels and other Western governments have extended loans – to nations in debt and sometimes under corrupt leadership. In other cases they've helped to create the debt conditions that cause the nations to turn to these international (but Western dominated and controlled) banking organisations.

Consequently these nations are pushed into massive debt and eventually forced to make concessions. First, comes privatisation of government services and the opening of the markets to Western competition (or domination) – i.e. Wall Street, the City of London/Canary Wharf, La Defense, the Bankenviertel, and so forth.

These banking conglomerates (which are in some cases all but indistinguishable from the governments they are wed to) push these poor nations into infrastructure deals or loan arrangements they cannot afford. When they can't pay, the deals are restructured, the societies are further privatised, forced into austerity regimes and their economies are effectively handed over to Western finance. Private companies come in and exploit the resources such as oil, minerals, timber, and the like. Or other concessions are made. Washington in particular likes to cut deals for their military – ports for their ships to re-supply, air access, and of course bases.

This has been going on for years and its part of the Neo-Colonial system in which Western powers dominate the developing world but do so indirectly – a step back from officialdom and any kind of limelight or actual accountability. Along with this there are exchange programs. These countries send their best and brightest to Western countries where they are not only educated and trained (or groomed) but contacts are made which will later be exploited. Returning they dominate the business and political classes. They become rich and sometimes powerful but in order to do so – they sell out their countries to Western interests.

The mainstream media which is effectively dominated by the financial and corporate interests will not touch these stories or if they do – they dance around the periphery and effectively whitewash the coverage. At times they might even show the devastated societies, broken village systems, pollution, and despair but they won't connect the dots and help the news consumer understand what is happening, why – and who is profiting from it. To do so would be to attack middle America and even the very idea of America itself.

They can't tell this story because it (and the usury it is built on) is at the heart of the Western system. If Americans become morally outraged and start to pull their money out of the markets or demand reform and accountability – and thus lessen profits, the system could collapse.

But when it comes to China, then we see Western media cover the story with great zeal. Let the moral outrage flourish. China has only been at this game for about a decade or so and they are proving to be successful and even pushing into areas formerly dominated by Washington and its proxies. The West insists on putting a veneer on its international relations. It pretends to care about human rights and other values. It's a means of brow-beating weaker countries and yet we've seen time and again that when it comes to serious strategic relationships, the US and other Western nations are happy to dispense with the phony rhetoric and will happily embrace (or even install) brutal militaristic dictators. It all depends on the context and the marketing.

Beijing for its part is interested in business deals. They're not interested in playing a game of diplomatic charades and some political leaders in the developing world prefer to do business with China. The Americans, British, and others are arrogant and have a long track record of deceit. The Chinese do business the same way but with a different style and it's appealing to some.

And let's face it, Beijing has learned from the West. Ironically their behaviour (the behaviour being so harshly condemned by Western media) is basically an emulation of the Western model. They've learned their lessons well but you wouldn't know it when encountering Western media coverage. For them it's all doom and gloom as China is exploiting these poor countries. Of course they are. That's the nature of international capitalism. It's parasitic and monopolising. What's offensive is the outrage on the part of the media. It's a disgusting display of rank hypocrisy. They've been covering for the Western system for decades – a system which does the very same thing.

And thus when encountering a story like this, we can also learn our lessons about the media. NPR is certainly socially liberal haven for sodomites and the like but it's still part and parcel of the US system and a defender of the Establishment order – and this includes the aggressive propaganda campaigns that are currently being directed against both Beijing and Moscow.

China and Russia are led by wicked governments and this isn't because they aren't in line with Western Liberalism. It's because they're led by mammon worshippers and unregenerate people. The same is true of the United States. The packaging and marketing are different but the core ethics and fundamental goals are the same – power and money. And those who pursue such goals will lie, cheat, steal, and kill. This is the way things are in a fallen world.

My concern is not to make China look good or even better but to tell the truth because the ugliness and evil is far grander than this NPR story reveals. In fact their slant is evil. And additionally though Evangelicals may hate outlets like NPR, they actually share fundamental assumptions and beliefs about the Western order – assumptions and beliefs that New Testament Christians must reject. And thus while I'm irritated with NPR I am appalled that Christians fall for this kind of reporting on a daily basis – all the more if it comes from the FOX channel and other outlets which represent the interests of Wall Street and the Pentagon and in particular the financial forces and institutions that bind them together.