America Preached The Wonders of Free Markets to The Rest of The World
But Exempted Itself -- Until Last Year
Gregory Palast
Sunday July 1, 2001
The Observer
Napoleon called England a nation of shopkeepers, but the Little Corporal never tried to purchase dietary staples (organic milk, Red Bull) from a Tesco Express. I tackled the manager as to why they were out of stock AGAIN. 'It's Friday,' he said, as if that were an unforeseen occurrence, like a rogue tidal wave that had engulfed Upper Street and prevented deliveries. I began to explain that 'Friday' is what accountants call a 'recurring event' and HAVEN'T YOU BRITONS EVER HEARD OF COMPUTERS YOU KNOW THOSE THINGS THAT LOOK LIKE TELEVISIONS WITH TYPEWRITERS ATTACHED... but, by then, everyone was looking around at that despised figure, the Complaining American. (Show me more...)
by Greg Palast
If you liked the way Florida handled the presidential vote in November, you'll just love the election reform laws that have passed since then in 10 states, and have been proposed in 16 others. (Show me more...)
El suministro de agua potable es la ultima adquisicion de Companias Britanicas sedientas y al servicio del Tìo Sam.
En Cochabamba, el nuevo Imperio Bretaña construye un dique por la verdad. por Gregory Palast
Gregory Palast es un experto e reconocido en regulación de la empresa de servicios públicos. Este arté culo se publicà primero por el periòdico del Observador de Londres en el que Palast escribe una columna semanal. (Show me more...)
Editor's Note: Investigative reporting about voting rights violations in the U.S. have been page one news -- in Britain. Palast is fighting mad about the lack of interest shown by U.S. outlets in stories that are making waves worldwide. His report on what happened to his reporting is the latest media "whistleblower" story on MediaChannel, where this story first appeared. (Show me more...)
by Greg Palast
Ah, the smell of Texas in the morning!
According to LaNell Anderson, real estate agent, what I'm smelling is a combination of hydrogen sulphide and some other, unidentifiable toxic gunk. We've pulled up across from a pond on Houston's ship channel, home of the biggest refinery and chemical complex in America. The pond is filled with benzene residues, a churning, burbling goop. Though there's a little park nearby, this is not a bucolic swimming hole. Rather, imagine your toilet backed up, loaded, churning and ripe - assuming your toilet is a half-mile in circumference. (Show me more...)
by Greg Palast
You nasty-minded readers probably believe George Bush's Energy Plan is just some pee-brained scheme to pay off the Presidents oil company buddies, fry the planet, and smother Mother earth in coal ash, petroleum pollutants and nuclear waste. If that's what you think, you've overlooked the really vicious intent of the whole program.
It's payback time - and Bush intends to make California pay. Let me list California's sins. (Show me more...)
Greg Palast reporting for BBC Newsnight
First Broadcast 27 April 2001
WATCH THE REPORT
GREG PALAST:
It's quiet now, but all police leave in the capital has been cancelled. They're taking no chances after last week's anti-globalisation protests in Quebec and the street wars on this spot during the same meeting last year of the IMF and World Bank. So what's their complaint? The protesters say that what we have here is a conspiracy - the World Bank, IMF and World Trade
Organisation don't help the poor of the world, they crush them. Well, the bosses are here today, let's ask them. Mr Wolfensohn, the protesters say you are the chief of a secretive, undemocratic world government which has made poverty worse worldwide. How do you respond? (Show me more...)
by Greg Palast
(Note to American readers: Replace the words "Trade Minister Dick Caborn"
with the words, "US Trade Representative" - whose assurances about the WTO
are virtually interchangeable with European ministers' happy-talk...)
Britain's Trade Minister Dick Caborn does nothing all day and that keeps him very, very busy. Caborn is busy reassuring his nation that nothing in the proposed General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) threatens Britain's environmental regulations. Nothing in GATS permits American corporate powers to overturn safety and health regulations. (Show me more...)
