New World Notes - Imperialism Old and New (Part 1 of 2)

This week on New World Notes: radio program #319, April 15, 2014, from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. (and on Wednesday from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.), host Kenneth Dowst reprises a classic talk from 1999 by political scientist Michael Parenti. It's just as illuminating today as it was then--and often funny, too. Parenti titled his talk, Globalization: the New Imperialism.

This week, in Part 1, Parenti shows how the Western powers "underdeveloped" the "Third-World"--creating poverty there in order to enrich private corporations at home. Indeed (Parenti argues), almost all U.S. foreign policy seems aimed at increasing the profits of the Fortune 500.

This is the real purpose of the hundreds of U.S. military interventions abroad--many of which overthrew democratically elected governments, replacing them with dictatorships friendly to U.S. corporate interests. Boosting corporate profits likewise is the reason befind our recent spate of "humanitarian" military interventions, Parenti argues.

With an introduction by K.D.

Parenti spoke in Raleigh, NC, in November 1999. Recording courtesy of Sally Soriano and People's Video-Audio.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "radar") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.

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Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want--and what they're trying to make us settle for.

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