Tuesday, March 22, 2005

An Excerpt

I've stumbled on quite an interesting book. This is an excerpt from a non-fiction book entitled, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins.

The background on the following excerpt:

Time: between 1971 and 1975
Place: a little town in Indonesia
Setting: the author and his local Indonesian friends are sitting in a coffee house reviewing a play put on by the local dalang (a shaman that illustrates his prophecies and visions with puppets). The author is the ONLY American in attendence.
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I asked them why they thought the dalang had singled out Muslim countries, except for Vietnam.

The beautiful English major laughed at this. "Because that's the plan."

"Vietnam is just a holding action," one of the men interjected, "like Holland was for the Nazis. A stepping-stone."

"The real target," the woman continued, "is the Muslim world."

I could not let this go unanswered. "Surely," I protested, "you can't believe that the Uniteed States is anti-Islamic."

"Oh no?" she asked. "Since when? You need to read on of your own historians - a Brit named Toynbee. Back in the fifties he predicted that the real war in the next century would not be between Communists and capitalists, but between Christians and Muslims."


"Arnold Toynbee said that?" I was stunned.

"Yes. Read Civilizations on Trial and The World and the West."

"But why should there be such animosity between Muslims and Christians?" I asked.

Looks were exchanged around the table. They appeared to find it hard to believe that I could ask such a foolish question.

"Because," she said slowly, as though addressing someone slow-witted or hard of hearing. "the West - especially its leader, the U.S. - is determined to take control of all the world, to become the greatest empire in history. It has already gotten very close to succeeding. The Soviet Union currently stands in its way, but the Soviets will not endure. Toynbee could see that. They have no religion, no faith, no substance behind their ideology. History demonstrates that faith - soul, a belief in higher powers- is essential. We Muslims have it. We have it more than anyone else in the world, even more than the Christians. So we wait. We grow strong."

"We will take our time," one of the men chimed in, "and then like a snake we will strike."

"What a horrible thought!" I could barely contain myself. "What can we do to change this?"

The English major looked me directly in the eyes. "Stop being so greedy," she said, "and so selfish. Realize that there is more to the world than your big houses and fancy stores. People are starving and you worry about oil for your cars. Babies are dying of thirst and you search the fashion magazines for the latest styles. Nations like ours are drowning in poverty, but your people don't even hear our cries for help. You shut your ears to the voices of those who try to tell you these things. You label them radicals or Communists. You must open your hearts to the poor and downtrodden, instead of driving them further into poverty and servitude. There's not much time left. If you don't change, you're doomed."


The previous excerpt resonates within me. Folks, America The Beautiful is not all that it cracks up to be. We are blind if we give into the countless false doctrine of the people that lead this country.

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