Saturday, December 16, 2006

123 Tagged!

Nick has tagged me!

Here are the rules:
Find the nearest book.
Name the book
The author
Turn to page 123
Go to the fifth sentence on the page
Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog. Tag three more folks.

The nearest book, OK, it's not the book I'm currently reading but it's a fairly recently read one.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
author: John Perkins
I had breakfasted early that morning, and the maitre d' gave me an odd look. I glanced around. Graham Greene sat alone at a table near the wall.
This is a work of non-fiction even though the 3 sentences make it sound like a novel, especially a spy-novel or something, but this book is unfortunately the real thing. A description of an ugly reality that exists in this world today, and the author was part of it before his retirement. The book has a website here, and this is the a brief description of the book there:

In this shocking memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins tells of his own inner journey from willing servant of empire to impassioned advocate for the rights of oppressed people. Covertly recruited by the United States National Security Agency and on the payroll of an international consulting firm, he traveled the world—to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other strategically important countries. His job was to implement policies that promoted the interests of the U.S. corporatocracy (a coalition of government, banks, and corporations) while professing to alleviate poverty—policies that alienated many nations and ultimately led to September 11 and growing anti-Americanism.
I learned about this book at our UU Church, where Rev. Davidson Loehr talked about it extensively in a sermon. That's one reason I love that man. Here's an interview with John Perkins on the Democracy Now! website.

tagged: Nava, Undeniable Liberal, Hill Country Gal

5 comments:

FreakyNick said...

That is interesting, I'm intrigued. Tomorrow morning is my "bookstore" day and I will look for it.

I used to go to a UU Fellowship here in Montgomery. Very nice people, and I like the sermons, but those people were always buggin' me to go to lunch with them afterward, and before you know it they were making it a whole day affair. I'm not into socializing that much, and I have other things I want to do on Sunday. But I made some good friends and still go occasionally to see what's up.

Anonymous said...

See, you all read "decent" books, with pedigrees. I read local authors who specialize in Blanco County mysteries. HILARIOUS stuff, actually.

Nava said...

Mission accomplished!
Thank you - it was, well, kinda, like - fun?

Tom Bailey said...

He has some interesting views. (the author). I am just wondering what he does with the proceeds.

http://sms100.blogspot.com/

Blueberry said...

Well, it says in the back that he "currently writes and teaches about achieving peace and prosperity by expanding our personal awareness and transforming our institutions". He has 2 websites:
http://www.johnperkins.org/
http://dreamchange.org/

Kind of new age-y stuff pretty much. I really admire the guy for writing a book like this at great personal risk... even though he made a fortune at one time doing dirty deeds it's not the kind of job you can usually retire from and write memoirs about... and live to see them published. Is there a hidden agenda? Maybe. But, it's fascinating anyway.