What is Albright Really Promising for the 'New'

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 What is Albright Really Promising for the 'New'
                      Yugoslavia?

            by Jared Israel (10-8-2000)

                        www.tenc.net
                      [Emperor's Clothes]

 As Clinton administration officials wax euphoric over their
'democratic' coup
 d'état in Yugoslavia, we say, "Why not? What is democracy without a few

 hundred million dollars in US bribes plus a mob that sacks the
parliament
 building and loots paintings, chairs and computers?"

 Is this what they meant by 'free elections'?

 Accompanying the expressions of euphoria are promises of Good Things to

 Come:

      "[Secretary of State Madeleine Albright]...promised assistance
      from Washington and its European allies for reconstruction so
      that Yugoslavs 'can have the normal life that the rest of the
      Balkans are beginning to have.'" ('LA Times', 10-6-2000)

 Assistance and a normal life. We will be publishing an in-depth look at
the
 meaning of this assistance. The plan for Yugoslavia is a Marshall plan
in
 reverse. Whereas the first Marshall Plan was a Keynsian affair, pumping

 money into local economies, providing cheap credit and so on, this plan
will
 do the reverse. In essence, Yugoslavia will pay war reparations to the
West.
 More on that in later articles.

 Albright promises to bring Yugoslavia "the normal life that the rest of
the
 Balkans are beginning to have."

 That suggests the ''rest of the Balkans'' was doing badly before the
West
 took over and now they doing better.

 Untrue. The countries the US has 'assisted', particularly Bulgaria and
 Albania in the Balkans, along with Ukraine and the Russian Federation
next
 door, had a decent standard of living before the West imposed
'structural
 adjustment' plans. These plans have caused economic and social
 devastation. And conditions are getting worse.

 Albania has in essence no functioning economy. If it weren't for the
1/3 of
 the labor force that works outside the country, mainly in Italy and
Greece,
 and the money these people remit back to their families, there would be
no
 economy at all. (Albanian economic figures are manipulated to give the
false
 impression of economic improvement. In reality there is almost no
economic
 activity.) Bulgarian industry and social life have been destroyed.
Bulgaria
 and Russia have falling populations.

 Radio Free Europe had a story recently that

         ONLY 30 PERCENT OF RUSSIAN BIRTHS ARE
                         'NORMAL.

      'The Russian Academy of Medical Sciences told AP on 5
      October that the number of normal births in the Russian
      Federation declined from 45.3 percent in 1992 [after
      International Monetary Fund 'reforms' were first instituted,
      which destroyed the Russian social safety net] to just 30
      percent in 1999. (RFRFE/RL Newsline, 10/6/00)

 The story goes on to blame this terrible statistic mainly on personal
problems
 - excessive drinking and the like. It is true enough that many people
in
 economically devastated countries develop extreme personal problems.
But
 it is important to understand the cause: the International Monetary
Fund
 ordered the Russia government to institute extreme social spending
cuts, and
 these cuts shattered the medical system. People who have been thrown
into
 poverty don't have healthy pregnancies, do they?

 ****

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Ph.D Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
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