Let them speak
Much of the debate about Iraq in the West is dominated by Westerners, pontificating about a conflict they know little about.
It’s more than time to hear Iraqis debating their own country. A striking personal case is here.
Disaster has become big business. Talking to immigrants stuck in limbo in Britain or visiting immigration centers in America, Loewenstein maps the secret networks formed to help corporations bleed what profits they can from economic crisis. He debates with Western contractors in Afghanistan, meets the locals in post-earthquake Haiti, and in Greece finds a country at the mercy of vulture profiteers. In Papua New Guinea, he sees a local community forced to rebel against predatory resource companies and NGOs.
What emerges through Loewenstein’s reporting is a dark history of multinational corporations that, with the aid of media and political elites, have grown more powerful than national governments. In the twenty-first century, the vulnerable have become the world’s most valuable commodity. Disaster Capitalism is published by Verso in 2015 and in paperback in January 2017.
Much of the debate about Iraq in the West is dominated by Westerners, pontificating about a conflict they know little about.
It’s more than time to hear Iraqis debating their own country. A striking personal case is here.