Corporate Gain From Misery.

       I recently posted an article, "No Human Being is Illegal", highlighting the desperate plight  of immigrants on hunger strike in the Netherlands. What we should remember is that this is not a new phenomena, this harsh treatment is widespread, has been going on for years and is a day and daily occurrence in country after country.  It is also big business, companies like G4S make millions from certain human beings being classified as "illegal" and herding them like cattle, depriving them of any rights. It is a sad indictment of any society that makes corporate bodies rich on the back of people's misery. This world belongs to its people, not the political and corporate institutions that at present control our lives.

       The following extract is from an old article from Tiger Beatdown, sent to me by Loam at Arrezafe. Nothing has changed in the intervening time, except that the likes of G4S have made lots more cash.

       "I am a Non Western, South American immigrant in a society that is increasingly determined to get rid of those like me. Media constantly reminds me that we are practically non human. That our rights should be eroded further in the name of safety. Politicians build careers using the rhetoric of hatred against those like me. I was punched in the face, I was elbowed in the stomach on two different occasions by two White Supremacists who objected to my looks and my speaking another language with a friend. Racial slurs were hurled. And still, I know I don’t have it as bad as others. In the grand scheme of things, I am privileged. I am a documented resident. At least, I am not one of the thousands currently in detention camps awaiting deportation. Then my life would be under the control of a corporation that actually makes a profit out off the lives of those who are dehumanized the most. If I was undocumented, my life would be in the hands of someone like this guy, featured in The New York Times this past week:

      Nick Buckles, the chief executive of G4S, would not discuss the company. But last year he told analysts how its “justice” business in the Netherlands blossomed in one week after the 2002 assassination of a politician with an anti-immigrant and law-and-order agenda.
“There’s nothing like a political crisis to stimulate a bit of change,” Mr. Buckles said.

     That’s what undocumented immigrants are: a bit of political change. Except that the security guards working for the company that Mr. Buckles represents had a big degree of responsibility for the gruesome death of eleven asylum seekers who were awaiting deportation in a detention center at Schiphol Airport in The Netherlands on Thursday, October 27^thof 2005. Apparently, the kind of change Mr. Buckles aims for does not include preserving the wellbeing of people whose only crime was to seek an opportunity to better their lives. When detainees raised the alarm and cried for help, when flames were taking over the detention center, the guards working for Mr. Buckles’ corporation ignored them. They were left to die. Nine men and two women. Their bodies now an “opportunity for corporate growth”.

Read the full article HERE:

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