Suriname: A struggling country's past and future shaped by Alcoa and its aluminum - by Rich Lord and Len Boselovic

Suriname: The Brokopondo dam at Afobaka

The following excerpts come from a lengthy and fascinating  report in the US Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Pulitzer Center , describing the Multi-National Aluminum Company of America's exploitation of  Suriname's (a former Dutch colony on the North East Coast of South America) natural resources (bauxite deposits) since 1916. 

It must be noted that several governments, especially in Latin America and Africa, have been receptive to the negative images and have adopted hostile policies towards MNCs. 

However, a careful examination of the nature of MNCs and their operations in the Third World reveals a positive image of them, especially as the allies in the development process of these countries.

Even as MNCs may be motivated primarily by profits to invest in the Third World, the morality of their activities in improving the material lives of many in these countries should not be obscured through miss-perceptions and negative publicity usually circulated by corrupt local governments.

"It electrified this South American country even as it drowned a jungle, so the 1.2-mile-long dam Alcoa built here to harness the Suriname River is more than stone and turbines. It’s a symbol, in this tropical land of 560,000, of progress, trauma and a global company’s ability to dominate a little country’s landscape and society.

Now the Alcoa Corp. is leaving Suriname, and the Afobaka Dam’s future rivets everyone from the capital’s dealmakers to the forest’s subsistence farmers.

In a country just north of the equator that would fit within a combined Pennsylvania and West Virginia — a country that’s already in a downturn locals call “the crisis” — Alcoa’s decision to permanently end mining and refining has delivered a resonating blow.

Alcoa, the aluminum company founded in Pittsburgh in 1888 that eventually spanned six continents, set up shop here in 1916 when it found bauxite beneath the jungle floor. Cutthroat conditions in the global aluminum market compelled a shutdown in November 2015.

Halfway through that century, Alcoa finished the dam, flooding a forest people’s heartland but also jolting a plantation-based economy into the industrial age. Alcoa created mammoth mining and refining sites and raucous river towns, building a middle class while toughing out a nation’s independence, civil war and an unstable government.

Alcoa found in Suriname, circa 1916, “an almost forgotten and impoverished Dutch colony … which had to look forward to a future without a glimmer of hope,” according to a glossy, celebratory magazine the company produced in late 2014.

It was a land of subsistence farms and wild rubber extraction, plus “colonial plantations” producing cocoa, coffee and sugar. In Alcoa’s first half-century there, the company mined bauxite to the east and south of the capital and sent it abroad, by boat, for processing.

In 1958, the company, the local minister-president and the Dutch governor agreed on a plan to power an ore-to-aluminum industrial complex and signed the 75-year Brokopondo Agreement, named for the town just north of the proposed dam site.

From 1959 through 1965, Alcoa built the Afobaka Dam, and in Paranam a refinery to turn bauxite into alumina, and a smelter to convert that to aluminum ingots. The plans were crafted “on the drawing table of Alcoa’s Engineering Department in Pittsburgh,” according to a company history of the project.

The lengthy Brokopondo Agreement contained just one sentence about the 6,000 people living in 43 villages just upstream of the dam — leaving it to the government to “remove the population, the buildings and other property from the reservoir area.”

The lengthy Brokopondo Agreement contained just one sentence about the 6,000 people living in 43 villages just upstream of the dam — leaving it to the government to “remove the population, the buildings and other property from the reservoir area.”

The 1958 agreement gave Suriname’s government a fraction of the dam’s cheap electricity priced at 0.4 cents per kilowatt hour. But circumstances changed in 1999 when Alcoa closed the smelter, a big user of the dam’s electricity.

Although many say the smelter’s small size and environmental issues were the reasons for the shutdown, there was a nagging suspicion among some that Alcoa had another motive.

Henk Ramdin, Suralco’s general manager until retiring shortly before the smelter was shuttered, said many employees at the time believed the company could make more money selling the power than it could making aluminum.

“They didn’t say it openly, but I could feel it,” Mr. Ramdin recalled.

An Alcoa spokesman wrote that such decisions are based on “a comprehensive evaluation of market conditions, regulatory certainty, and capital requirements,” but declined to be more specific.

The dispute over the dam and electricity pricing came to head in October 2015, when Alcoa and Suriname’s current minister of natural resources signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding outlining proposed terms for Alcoa’s departure.

Alcoa agreed to clean up its mines and industrial sites to U.S. standards, to consider eventual mining of bauxite in western Suriname, and to give the dam to the country’s government at the end of 2019 — 13 years before the Brokopondo Agreement ended ".

For the complete report click here: A struggling country's past and future shaped by Alcoa and its aluminum | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

New World Order Equals "Global Disorder": as the frail structures of peace are collapsing around us - by RM

A Nuclear War Is looming

What was sold to the world as "the New World Order" by George Bush, the father of  George W.Bush can only be described today as a total failure and should really be known as the "World Corporate Takeover".

As a result things are escalating in the world today: tensions, wars, guns, refugee crises, poverty, economic crises, immigration, etc.

The world must solve these problems before they explode into  a Third World Nuclear War.

World leaders, politicians, people cannot continue keep silent on atrocities going on around the world, especially the Middle East and Africa, or even in our own Western cities and neighborhoods.

Only when enough voices are raised can something change.

Feel encouraged to use the social media, not only for pleasantries, culinary delights, travel, or navel staring, but also use it as a non-violent, but very effective weapon to criticize your elected leaders, corporations, the press, on issues that are important for your survival.

Those of you using Blogs or other communications tools, as an oversight to expose governments and corporate "hanky-panky" need to be cheered on and complimented.

The younger generation, reading this report, are also encouraged to use their energy and skills, not only to make money, but also to become an activists, by speaking their minds on issues they believe in.

After all as Alexis de Tocqueville once said said: "The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by its private citizens" .

Take the time to look around you and you will soon realize that the so-called "status-quo " enjoyed by only a few, is not sufficient to guarantee a productive living environment for all.

It is no longer acceptable before God, and people with conscience. Nations who have no voice in the world are being purged, gutted out and destroyed.

Today there is conflict all over the world. You name it, the Middle East, Africa, Central America, Ukraine, etc. Thousands have perished in Syria, and millions fled from their homes; thousands are perishing in Yemen, mostly children; thousand in Iraq and the destruction of an ancient city; thousands fled in Libya where another war is raging; 60, 000 just fled their homes a few days ago in South Sudan; Mali, Central African Republic, Somali, Congo all in conflict and millions in refugee camps. Thousands have perished and millions fled to seek refugee status in Europe, Turkey, Lebanon and even the US.

Something must be done soon before the frail structures still holding the world from collapsing into a Third World Nuclear War” also collapse.

Many of the areas where you have conflicts these days are usually the so-called Third World Nations or as somecall them, Developing Nations. They do, however, contain most of the natural resources in the world, but still remain among the poorest nations of the world.

The obvious question is why?

Mainly because the global centers of power in the world, including the US, EU, China, Russia, Britain, either use these developing countries to expand their political sphere of influence, or to control their natural resources, under all kinds of pretenses; including the setting-up of puppet leaders who do their bidding.

Once a grip is established by "an outside power", it will put a "friendly" Puppet Government in place providing it with weapons to control the people they govern.

When those leaders, however,  for one reason or another, are not able to meet the goals set for them by their "foreign benefactor", they are either exciled or assassinated, under whatever pretense.

This is the way leaders in Egypt, Libya, Iraq, etc. were toppled.

Consequently many of the world's Third World leaders are ruthless, wicked, and not able to develop these natural resources for the benefit of their own people, specially in Africa, blessed with just about every natural resource the world needs.

Our own Western leaders are not much better in that respect, specially when it comes to Democracy or governance.

They seldom show any remorse for the atrocities they have created around the world; are godless and immoral; will promise anything to keep control over the people, only to deceive, will not do what they promise and usually create more problems than opportunities for the people they are supposed to serve.

Poverty has spread across the globe, not only in Africa, but now also to the rich and powerful nations of the world, including, the US, India, Russia, China, Britain, Greece, France, Braxil, Venezuela and many more.

When it comes to politics, people these days the world over have a lot in common. From Fukushima to Athens, and from Washington to Shanghai, China, the collective refrain is that government is not to be trusted, or working the way it should, and that corporations are calling the shots today.

People in the so-called "civilized" world now pay dearly for energy, medicine,insurance, healthcare, banking, and telecommunications services.  In the past it was called Voodoo Economics and today it has become Strangle-Hold Economics.

Research reveals that people are paying more -- much more -- in a variety of ways that our business-friendly mainstream media won't talk about.

Just look at America's Middle class. It  is almost wiped out; either you are rich, or poor now; poverty levels stand at 46 percent and is increasing; millions are in shelters, and millions without jobs. 

To add insult to injury - The wide-spread availability of guns in America has killed thousands of Americans, and everyday, many more die from gun violence; yet, Congress doesn't want to pass gun control law. Mainly again because of the powerful NRA lobby, which has its hands on the pocketbook of just about every legislator in both major parties.

In the meantime the corporate power structure has taken over most of the political decision making in Western Countries, and even more so in America. It now influences and controls just about anything  you can imagine. From the healthcare Industry to the food industry, even influencing what kind of hormones and pesticides are allowed in the food you eat, and all else in between. 

The Pharmaceutical industry uses sales agents, not only to peddle their drugs, but also to bribe Drs. with a variety of incentives, including money. 

Drs. are prescribing drugs and performing surgery on patients that don't really need those particular drugs or the surgery, while new effective and cheaper .drugs that can cure patient are delayed in being put on to the marketplace,t so that the Pharmaceutical Industry can continue selling expensive drugs which don't work. .  


A report by Battelle Memorial Institute determined that the $4 billion government-funded Human Genome Project (HGP) will generate economic activity of about $140 for every dollar spent. Although that estimate controversial, drug industry executives say it's just a matter of time before the profits roll in.

Big business has quickly made its move on this. 

One-fifth of the human genome is now privately owned through patents. Strains of influenza and hepatitis have been claimed by corporate and private university labs, preventing researchers from using the patented life forms to perform cancer research. This is not only bad it is plainly criminal.

As if to mock us, while taking over our public research, some of the largest drug companies haven't been paying much in taxes. Pfizer had 40% of its 2011-12 revenues in the U.S., but declared almost $7 billion in U.S. losses to go along with $31 billion in foreign profits. Abbott Labs had 42% of its sales in the U.S., but declared a loss in the U.S. along with $12 billion in foreign profits.

These alliances between the political establishment and the corporate world are now commonplace and even expanding further..

In the area of communications we see similar developments. 

In the US the CIA and NSA have been using public tax money to pay AT&T. Google, and other companies to access its data - basically your private data - for surveillance purposes. 

With almost no transparency or oversight, the CIA has been paying AT&T to monitor US citizens overseas phone calls. Hundreds of dollars per customer per month goes to Verizon for similar snooping. 

The NSA also compensated Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook for penalties accrued in the secretive Prism surveillance program.

Many US  corporations consequently feel very powerful as a result of the inequitable support they receive from their government when operating in other countries, and often act accordingly in an arrogant way, when dealing with foreign governments.

Recently Facebook rejected claims made by Germany's state authorities that it was reluctant to co-operate with them on criminal investigations, saying many of the requests it received for user data were incorrectly formulated.

Several regional interior ministers have complained that the social media group is hesitant to respond to requests for data and have called on the Federal Justice Ministry to introduce new laws.

German Police said the Ansbach bomber had six Facebook accounts including one held under a false identity. Traces of an online messaging conversation found on his phone also suggest he was influenced by an unknown person up until the time of the attack, said Bavaria's interior minister.

Germany's spy chief called on Monday for a more intensive exchange of information between social networks and security agencies in the fight against terrorism.

Bottom-line: The state of the world is not looking good, and maybe in this respect one should quote Scripture which says: “You will reap whatever you sow in life.” 

Mankind certainly can not be proud about what it sowed. 

The time of reckoning is fast approaching -and we must act before it is too late,

EU-Digest