Asad Ismi: review of 'Hidden Agendas'

Hidden Agendas by John Pilger, Vintage, 1998
(Book Review)

The defining moment in this award-winning Australian journalist's brilliant expose of Western terrorism comes when thewords of George Kennan, U.S. imperial planner, are followed by an account of the life of Sonia, who lives in a village in Indian Punjab. Kennan stated in 1948: "We have 50% of the world'swealth but only 6.3% of it's population...Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will allow us to maintain this position of disparity." Sonia, who iseleven years old and blind, is one of those paying the cost of maintaining "this position of disparity." Her job is stitching soccer balls (for export to England) by hand with her Aunt Satya'shelp. The two support an extended family since Sonia's mother became ill. It takes Sonia a day to stitch two balls for which she gets 25 cents (U.S.), not enough to buy a litre of milk.

The value of Pilger's book lies in his use of such personal examples which effectively brings home the destructive consequences of Western policy. In this way, Pilger paints a brutallyaccurate portrait of a grotesque world. A world populated mostly by the "Unpeople" of developing countries whose main role is to be controlled and exploited by a rapacious West led by theUnited States: "a hegemony greater than the world has ever seen dominating markets and trade from food to oil." Genocidal attacks are unleashed on the Unpeople who fight this oppression--fivemillion killed in Indochina by the U.S., a million in Indonesia, 200,000 in Guatemala and 130,000 in Chile, amongst many other countries.

According to Pilger, the American empire'sgreatest victory has been in the field of media management which ensures that the Western media never mention U.S. terrorism. Discussing media coverage of Nicaragua during the Contra war,Pilger concludes that "reporting... conformed to an ideological framework in which the facts of real [Sandinista] development successes were ignored in favour of of the stream of disinformationemanating from Washington and London." Leading journalists and academics display a "slavish" devotion to Establishment myths, which at times becomes parody. Reporters and teachers internalizethe "priorities of...power" because obeying authority and deferring to "experts" is the correct career path. Those who question the nature of the system are marginalized. Pilger quotes GeorgeOrwell who described how censorship in "free" societies was far more sophisticated and thorough than in dictatorships because "unpopular ideas can be silenced and inconvenient facts kept darkwithout any need for an official ban." And then there are the 500 prominent Britons paid by the CIA. They include 90 journalists and broadcasters, many "in senior positions."

All thisensures that Third World people are never shown as capable of taking control of their destinies and building better societies. Instead, they are always a threat to be bombed into submission or"incompetent stick figures" waiting for Western food aid.

Pilger's personal approach breaks through this facade and brings us portraits of Third World people resisting Westerndomination. He travels to meet them , talks to them in their homes and perceptively explains their struggle for decent societies. There is a respect in his words rarely encountered in Westernsources. He finds hope in the bravery of Xanana Gusmao, (head of the independence movement in East Timor) and Aung San Suu Kyi ( the Burmese dissident leader) and in the dignity of Mrs Thai ThiTinh, in her eighties, whose "life is the suffering and sacrifice of the Vietnamese in the twentieth century." She lost three sons and her husband in the Indochinese holocaust.

Unpeopleare the heroes of this book. "The hope for peace and justice in the world comes only from the tireless crusade of the common citizen," wrote Jose Ramos-Horta, the East Timorese leader inexile. By resisting, the Unpeople illuminate the hidden agendas of governments and corporations and make the triumph of the West far from certain.

Published in:
Briarpatch, November 1998

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, December 1998/January 1999
www.policyalternatives.ca


	AUSTRALIAN JOURNALIST TELLS STORY OF WESTERN TERRORISM

Hidden Agendas by John Pilger, Vintage, 1998 (Book Review) The defining moment in this award-winning Australian journalist's brilliant expose of Western terrorism comes when thewords of George Kennan, U.S. imperial planner, are followed by an account of the life of Sonia, who lives in a village in Indian Punjab. Kennan stated in 1948: "We have 50% of the world'swealth but only 6.3% of it's population...Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will allow us to maintain this position of disparity." Sonia, who iseleven years old and blind, is one of those paying the cost of maintaining "this position of disparity." Her job is stitching soccer balls (for export to England) by hand with her Aunt Satya'shelp. The two support an extended family since Sonia's mother became ill. It takes Sonia a day to stitch two balls for which she gets 25 cents (U.S.), not enough to buy a litre of milk. The value of Pilger's book lies in his use of such personal examples which effectively brings home the destructive consequences of Western policy. In this way, Pilger paints a brutallyaccurate portrait of a grotesque world. A world populated mostly by the "Unpeople" of developing countries whose main role is to be controlled and exploited by a rapacious West led by theUnited States: "a hegemony greater than the world has ever seen dominating markets and trade from food to oil." Genocidal attacks are unleashed on the Unpeople who fight this oppression--fivemillion killed in Indochina by the U.S., a million in Indonesia, 200,000 in Guatemala and 130,000 in Chile, amongst many other countries. According to Pilger, the American empire'sgreatest victory has been in the field of media management which ensures that the Western media never mention U.S. terrorism. Discussing media coverage of Nicaragua during the Contra war,Pilger concludes that "reporting... conformed to an ideological framework in which the facts of real [Sandinista] development successes were ignored in favour of of the stream of disinformationemanating from Washington and London." Leading journalists and academics display a "slavish" devotion to Establishment myths, which at times becomes parody. Reporters and teachers internalizethe "priorities of...power" because obeying authority and deferring to "experts" is the correct career path. Those who question the nature of the system are marginalized. Pilger quotes GeorgeOrwell who described how censorship in "free" societies was far more sophisticated and thorough than in dictatorships because "unpopular ideas can be silenced and inconvenient facts kept darkwithout any need for an official ban." And then there are the 500 prominent Britons paid by the CIA. They include 90 journalists and broadcasters, many "in senior positions." All thisensures that Third World people are never shown as capable of taking control of their destinies and building better societies. Instead, they are always a threat to be bombed into submission or"incompetent stick figures" waiting for Western food aid. Pilger's personal approach breaks through this facade and brings us portraits of Third World people resisting Westerndomination. He travels to meet them , talks to them in their homes and perceptively explains their struggle for decent societies. There is a respect in his words rarely encountered in Westernsources. He finds hope in the bravery of Xanana Gusmao, (head of the independence movement in East Timor) and Aung San Suu Kyi ( the Burmese dissident leader) and in the dignity of Mrs Thai ThiTinh, in her eighties, whose "life is the suffering and sacrifice of the Vietnamese in the twentieth century." She lost three sons and her husband in the Indochinese holocaust. Unpeopleare the heroes of this book. "The hope for peace and justice in the world comes only from the tireless crusade of the common citizen," wrote Jose Ramos-Horta, the East Timorese leader inexile. By resisting, the Unpeople illuminate the hidden agendas of governments and corporations and make the triumph of the West far from certain. Published in: Briarpatch, November 1998 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, December 1998/January 1999 www.policyalternatives.ca

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