Darwin's Nightmare NPR style!

For those of you who haven't yet seen Darwin's Nightmare, do it!

You've missed a very dark but brilliantly done documentary on (among other things) globalization, the cycle of war in Africa, the true nature of humanitarian organizations, and the arms trade, not to mention the insanity of a global corptocracy bent on increasing the ever widening rich/poor gap.

And unless you've seen that documentary or listened to "Guns & Butter"'s numerous episodes on the ultimate causes of the "genocide" in Rwanda, Darfur, DRC, etc.,

http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=20604

you will miss the surreal naivete of tonight's Fresh Air episode on Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.

Darwin's Nightmare painstakingly portrays how the flow of cheap food and goods exploited through globalization is only possible through endless wars fueled by illegal arms, i.e. economics based on the symbiotic relationship of cheap goods traveling north while illegal arms and humanitarian aid travel south.

Fresh Air's fantasy version breathlessly tells the tale in reverse logic. Apparently the proximity of precious resources necessary for globalization to proxy wars requiring illegal arms did not createVictor Bout, Victor Bout created illegal arms and higher profit margins for globalization!

Through serendipidity alone, Victor Bout created his own industry in supplying arms *and* freighting goods. He said, "Damn, I keep dropping off arms leaving me with empty planes...hey look -- frozen fish waiting to be exported by starving Africans!"

He is the master magician too -- tricking legitimate clients like the Pentagon and the UN into using his planes to carry weapons and aid into war zones, and the EU into using his services to carry goods out of war zones, all the while also supplying illegal arms to rebels and armies alike. That devious ingenious monster Victor Bout is *creating* a vicious cycle!

You know it's rock solid logic, except for one teensy, tiny, little gnawing question I had: "Where do the rag-tag rebels and tin-pot dictators get their money to pay for the weapons?"

Profiling the 21st Century's 'Merchant of Death'

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11870855

Fresh Air from WHYY, July 11, 2007 · Russian arms dealer Victor Bout has armed Islamic extremists and sold weapons to some of the Third World's most abusive and murderous dictators and warlords — and he's known for fueling both sides of conflicts. His success is rooted in the legacy of the Cold War,whose messy unraveling left him with easy access to massive inventories of weapons and ammunition built up by the Soviets. We talk about Bout with journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, who've co-written abook about him: Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.

Update 7/31/07: Just stumbled on this apropos poem:

http://poetrywithmeaning.com/authors/Uriah%20Hamilton/5683