ElephantsInTheRoom

“When missionaries came to Africa, we had the land, they had the bible. We closed our eyes to pray. When we opened them, they had the land…

“The history of medicine is littered with wonderful early results which over a period of time turn out to be not so wonderful…

It is estimated that poor countries pay $45 billion dollars per year to rich countries because of intellectual property laws

“The principal beneficiary of America’s foreign assistance has always been the United States”

“The WTO is the place where governments collude in private against their domestic pressure groups”

“Everything we did was to have the South privatized or die…we created economic bedlam in Latin America and Africa”

Sweatshops mean sewage on the floor, physical violence, extreme temperatures, inadequate ventilation, fire hazards and poisonous materials

“a development strategy based on agricultural commodity exports is likely to be impoverishing” (World Bank)

“Not since the conquistadores plundered Latin America has the world experienced a flow (of wealth from poor countries to rich) in the…

“This system is just another rigged game to enable the movers and shakers to get richer”

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings”…

“The total amount of third world debt has already been repaid six times over in interest”[i]

“I believe that banks are more dangerous than armies” (Former US President Thomas Jefferson)

“When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be…

“Of all the ways we have to run a banking system, the one we have today is the worst” (Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England)

“extreme wealth inevitably corrupts… it buys political power, it silences dissent, it serves primarily to perpetuate ever-greater wealth”

When some people are too rich, this creates huge downsides for many other people, and for society in general.

“A billion dollars is far more than anyone might reasonably claim to deserve, however much he believes he has contributed to society”

“the primary purpose of government is to protect those who run the economy from the outrage of injured citizens”

“It is time the nation woke up and realized that it’s not the armed robbers or drug dealers who cause the most economic harm, it’s the…

“no one makes a billion dollars. You TAKE a billion dollars. You take it from your workers…you plunder it from the environment…you strip…

“There isn’t one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the…

“We foreign bankers are in favor of free markets when we’re out to make a buck and believe in the state when we are about to lose a buck.”…