shortlink: http://shawnbeightol.com/blog/?p=266
I am wrapping up a beautiful winter break with my wife and her Rio family “doing Rio” – surfing, dancing, biking, etc. However, my mornings have been filled with heavy reading and contemplation over the content of deep conversations that are carried by my journalist father-in-law, Argemiro Ferreira, at the meal times over the history of the U.S. and Brazilian interactions during the last century.
At his recommendation, I’ve been reading a couple books about how the US manipulated the press in and out of Brazil since at least the 1930′s…utilizing such tools as Readers’ Digest and Hollywood movies (Orson Welles, Walt Disney, Carmen Miranda…) – all to develop markets for exports in a global economy affected by war in Europe and oil and minerals in South America.
The worst part (here’s where I will no doubt raise the ire of my former college-mates of Miami Christian College) – Nelson Rockefeller and the Rockefeller brothers’ far reaching business agenda in Latin America (and other developing economies) included facilitating right-wing dictatorships and funding conservative (as well as liberal) religious work in these countries under the guise of linguistics, Bible translation, and church planting/discipleship – though perhaps carried out on the ground in sincerity, from the top down these efforts were aimed at producing compliant, cooperative tribes out of indigenous peoples known previously (and rightfully) to resist the exploitation of their resources.
A heavy book by 2 American journalists (Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett) on this topic is entitled “Thy Will Be Done: the Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil” – a summary of this book can be found at http://www.whale.to/b/ruiz.html or, for my former college-mates who might prefer another perspective: http://www.seekgod.ca/wycliffe.htm ). See http://www.amazon.com/Thy-Will-Done-Rockefeller-Evangelism/dp/0060927232/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325249788&sr=1-1
Another book with my father-in-law’s transcribed speech on the topic in honor of Dr. Heitor Martin’s work as professor emeritus at Indiana University is “Studies in Honor of Heitor Martins.” Argemiro’s speech regarding Rockefeller’s influence under the the U.S. “Good Neighbor” policy is found under the title “Fiction, Nostalgia and Reality in the Good Neighbor Policy: Notes from the Past and Ideas for the Future.”
Editor Darlene Sadlier’s final article of the Heitor Martins’ tribute book also covers Rockefeller’s efforts to manipulate South American’s perceptions of the U.S. via his involvement in the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA), the RKO studios (distributing Disney’s films), and the Motion Picture Society of the Americas. It is entitled “Good Neighbor Brazil” and contains a multitude of referenced quotes and primary sources.
The conclusion of this time reading and reflecting on the topic of U.S. corporate entanglement in politics and government policy is that it is still going on. Corporate interests still drive legislation and policy, not the demos through electoral votes. The vote that drives the pen of the government, from legislator to executive to judge, is the dollar.
