Fred and Valerie

Spotted on an Infiniti, not a BMW.

An intense story about the inner workings of the United States’ dealings with foreign countries and the way the United States exploits its offers of “aid,” Confessions of an Economic Hit Man will make you think twice about everything from the invasion of Panama to the rise of Saudi Arabia to the war in Iraq.

According to author John Perkins, Economic Hit Men (EHMs) will craft a self-serving deal with a country like Saudi Arabia with the supposed purpose of improving the country’s infrastructure. A country like Saudi Arabia was in “need” of a garbage collection system, so Perkins (an EHM) created a deal that would provide garbage trucks and other sanitary infrastructure to the Saudis. But, because Saudis felt like collecting trash was beneath them, Perkins and his team also imported workers, who then needed housing and shopping and even more infrastructure.

To pay for it all, the US loaned money to the Saudis. That money was then used to pay US companies to create the infrastructure. So, the US lends money to another country so that the country can pay US companies. This means the money never really leaves the US, but the country in question (Saudi Arabia) still owes money to the US.

The kicker of it all is that the country is never expected to fully repay the loan. In fact, they’re EXPECTED to default on the loan so that the US can use that debt/default to call in favors. And if a country/leader doesn’t play along with the EHMs like Saudi Arabia did, the “jackals” are called in (as in the case of Panama and Omar Torrijos). And if the jackals can’t take care of business and get the country/leader to cooperate, the military is called in (as in the cases of Panama/Noriega and Iraq/Hussein).

On it’s surface, the book seems a bit hard to believe, but the more I read, the more realistic it all became. When current in-the-news companies doing business in Iraq like Bechtel, Haliburton, and others kept showing up in decades-old stories about EHM work, it’s hard NOT to believe it all.

Perkins paints a sad picture of the US’s foreign dealings and makes it easy to understand why some other countries and their people aren’t very happy with us… even if we’re giving them “aid” and “helping” them out.

Contrary to what you might have heard, you CAN get arrested for a DUI while driving a lawn mower.

These are the people we live amongst.

Last night seemed like any other night. We went do dinner with our friends, Amy and Jarrod, returned home, and went to sleep. Unfortunately, I didn’t wake up to my alarm clock at 6:00 am.

Instead, I woke up at about 12:30 am with massive pains in my chest. On a scale of 1-10, we’re talking at least a 9 and pretty close to a 10. I actually thought for a moment that I was having a heart attack.

I then took note of the rest of my body and figured out that not only did I have major heart pain, I also had itchy hands, a general head ache, and pain/numbness in my head, particularly around my mouth.

Going to the bathroom seemed like a good idea (hey, it was 12:30 am; I don’t claim to have been thinking clearly), so I went and then decided to take some antacid tablets (again, it was 12:30 am) and sat on the bathroom floor. About 2-3 minutes after taking the antacid tablets, the pain was still ridiculous, my hands were still itchy (like they’d just been dipped in itching powder a few dozen times), my head still ached, and I still had pain and numbness around my mouth. About that time, I figured I might be having another food allergy attack.

I’m currently in my lower-30s and up until a few years ago, I was only allergic to that costume glue that they use to attach fake beards (I have no future as a con artist). Suddenly, I became allergic to baked beans, Lima beans, and Macadamia nuts all in the span of a few months. At one point, I had to be rushed to CVS to get some Benadryl because of eating just a bit out of a Macadamia Nut cookie.

Once the realization came that this might be a food allergy, I went out to the living room, turned on the laptop and typed in my symptoms at WebMD.com. Sure enough, the first result was titled “Food Allergies.” Valerie had woken up and asked if I was alright and I plainly said, “No.” After explaining the situation, she recommended the Emergency Room and I agreed 100%.

Two hours later, I was discharged from the Emergency Room at AMC and was feeling much better. The chest pains had subsided mostly on their own and the itchy hands, aching of the head, and pain and numbness had all begun to disipate. They had giving me medication and some prescription that helped (and are helping) and now I have to go figure out what else I’m allergic to.

After lunch, the only things I had eaten all night were a lemon poppyseed muffin, peanuts from the shell, steak, chicken, barbecue sauce, mashed potatoes, white gravy, Kraft Mac & Cheese, dinner rolls, and cinnamon-flavored spread (hey, I was hungry!).

The peanuts clearly stand out, but I had just eaten a bucket of peanuts at a Texas Roadhouse about a month ago with no adverse reaction, so it seems unlikely. Valerie mentioned the possibility of it being the muffin because I had a weird sore throat issue (very minor) after eating it that was reminiscent of the Macadamia Nut cookie incident a year or more ago.

No matter what, I’m definitely finding a doctor on our side of the mountain and getting a food allergy check done. It’s kind of ridiculous to have this happen like this in my 30s, but I’d rather know what I can’t eat than to be rushed to the Emergency Room each time I accidentally discover one.