Talking about Disaster Capitalism in Britain

I was interviewed by Foyles, one of Britain’s best independent bookstores:

Antony Loewenstein… is an award-winning independent journalist, documentary maker and blogger. He has written for, amongst others, the… BBC… and the… Washington Post, and writes a weekly column for the… Guardian. For… his most recent book,… Disaster Capitalism, he has travelled across the world to witness first hand the hidden world of making profit from disaster. Here, he talks to us about what disaster capitalism is, why we should be concerned about it, and what we can do about it.
How do you define “disaster capitalism”?
People and corporations making… money… from misery, from immigration to war and aid, and development to mining. It’s a global problem that is not unique to any one territory, region or country.
Can you give us three… fundamental… features of “disaster capitalism”?
Opportunists looking to exploit a disaster, man-made or otherwise. Corporations pushing for a deregulated business environment. Moral blackmail from companies who argue, like I examine in Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan, that only their mine or operation can assist local communities (when the truth is often the opposite).
You write that “Disaster has become big business” – couldn’t this be positive? Businesses are… nimble, so perhaps it is best that they rather than cumbersome states focus on… solutions to… today’s problems?
Exploiting people and communities when they’re vulnerable can never be noble. For example, in my book I examine how UK… companies such as Mitie, Serco and G4S have spent years running privatised detention centres for immigrants and providing poor care for both detainees and the guards minding them. A lack of accountability, both in the media and government, is an issue here. Ultimately, with immigration, Britain’s… insistence on warehousing… immigrants is the problem, regardless of whether these facilities are run by the state or for profit. But the profit motive by definition removes an incentive to provide adequate care for all.
Can you give us some… real world… examples of big business causing problems “in the field”?
In my book, I examine the reality of the post-2010 Haiti earthquake environment and the litany of profiteers and aid organisations who flocked to the country and largely failed to help the people most in need (Wikileaks cables from the US embassy in the capital Port-au-Prince explained that there was a “gold-rush” for contracts). During my two trips there in the last years I’ve witnessed how a flawed USAID system is designed to benefit US corporations, and make them a profit, as opposed to empowering, training and hiring local staff. This breeds local resentment. Besides, the US claims to have spent over US$10 billion on aid… since 2010… and yet the country remains framed in Washington as little more than a client state to make cheap clothing for… Walmart, Gap and others.
There have always been disasters, and then apocalyptic doom-mongering about those disasters. What is new about this particular phase?
Yes, disaster capitalism has been… occurring… for… centuries… (the East-India Company was arguably the first example) but since the 1980s, and the era of mass globalisation, more corporations have embraced a deregulated world where they have become more powerful than the states… in… which… they operate. International law remains very slow to act when, say, a US company behaves badly in Afghanistan, and independent nations on paper are shown to be little more than helpless in the face of overwhelming US corporate and government power.
Back in 1972 Jorgen Randers wrote… The Limits to Growth… – that’s now nearly half a century ago! Are we really reaching the limits to growth? What’s different now compared to the 70s? What’s to say that we don’t have another 50 years of growth in us?
Growth, if defined by increasingly rapacious acts to exploit natural… resources, could continue for decades to come but at a massive cost to the environment and people, especially in developing nations. What I hope to achieve in my book… is to… bring… awareness of how Western companies and aid dollars too often cause more problems than they solve in nations with little media coverage. An exploitative ideology has been exported… globally. But closer to home, in Greece, UK, US and Australia,… often… the same firms working with abuses in the non-Western world, are allowed to buy the… increasing number of public… services being sold. In comparison to the 1970s, today’s inter-connected world makes… awareness much easier but also the scale of the exploitation (and dwindling resources) all the most urgent to address.… 
What are the three… things we could do immediately to ease the problem?
Pressure politicians and journalists to properly explain why companies that continually fail continue getting contracts to manage… the most vulnerable people. Engage with local communities in developing nations and listen to their concerns (when, say, an earthquake strikes, don’t presume outside contractors have all the answers). Force our elected leaders not to sell off public assets that the majority of the public wants to remain in public hands (and throw them out of office if they do).
What three books would you recommend as further reading for those interested in “disaster capitalism”?
Iraq, Inc… by… Pratap Chatterjee
The Shock Doctrine… by Naomi Klein
Private Island… by James Meek

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