11.9.2021

 Today we discussed the documentary "Iraqs Missing Billions" and the latter half of "The Corporation". From watching the "Iraqs Missing Billions" documentary after class, I was shocked at the sheer neglect that the US had pulled against Iraq's rebuilding. The Americans and British promised Iraq after the war to aid their revival whether it be healthcare, infrastructure, electricity plants, and more. They built with the help of the UN, the coalition provisional authority that facilitates the process of Iraq's country building through gathering funds. Huge sums of dollars in cash were distributed subsequently to the creation of the CPA, to Iraq, only to have its authority handed over to the Pentagon, and not the country's government. This was the start of the US's supreme control over all financial decisions. The leader made cruel actions such as disparaging all healthcare professionals and personnel and replacing them with US ministers and stashing the intended cash in remote areas only to be unfitly managed. At one point, 1 million or so dollars had been missing from the safe because it had been left unopened. Such careless actions directly impacted the citizens of Iraq, and especially in the healthcare sector. Leading to the rebuilding of Iraq, US officials had announced the big amounts of money invested towards healthcare equipment. However, upon arriving at the hospitals mentioned, it was not expected to have sewage-infested grounds, ants crawling all over, and the scarce supplies for basic medicines.  Water pipes were not fixed properly, and the lack of equipment had resulted in the example of a preventable passing of premature twins. On the other hand, about 20 billion dollars of Iraqi money in the aftermath had been left unaccounted for. Aviation companies for example had been later found to invoice more sums of money than the actual cost, making it difficult for investigators nowadays to track down the people involved in Iraqi's financial fraud and corruption. Moreover, both the American and British governments have denied or stayed silent about this situation to maintain their image.

Not only was I shocked about the preventable deaths of young children, and the struggles doctors are having with tending young babies, but the overwhelming money laundering and brutality the Pentagon enacted upon the Iraqi citizens was disturbing. Especially when learning about the numerous holes in the transactions of dollars, and the ludicrous tactics of trading everything by dollars and in cash, making it difficult to track down. Another example was about the final days of CPA, where several high officials were sent millions of dollars to spend within a weak, to diminish any money passing over to the Iraq government. Also, witnessing the raid of the Iraqi journalist by American soldiers, and hearing his family's distraught felt unbelievable. No wonder why so many people are leaving the country in search of security. However, this results in an ever negative cycle for its people, so I thought that humanitarian aid without the intervention of financial control will be valuable in this context. By allowing UN bodies to work individually (such as the Human rights council, or the ECOSOC), it may be less corruptive compared to one country owning the whole shares. 

Throughout today's "The Corporation", we discussed the future of privatization and specifically in the genome industry. Nowadays, we know a lot about genes and their main functions. An important aspect about them is that they can help determine one's longevity, physical characteristics, persona, and such. Thus, biotech companies' competition has soared in which every new gene is being patented and privatized for future profit. Some say that in the future, only a handful of biotech companies will hold the map to human evolution. This by the way started when General electric won the case to patent living organisms. What does this say about our reverence for life? Well, I believe human greed has surpassed reverence from looking at the predictions of privatization. Even now, everywhere we look, there is always a brand, logo, or icon waiting to bait us with commercial taglines. We, humans, are viewed as walking, talking advertisements and corporations have created our living to be advantageous for them. When truth has just become a pursuit of profit, and our purpose of living is influenced by the profit of a group, is where corporations become one with us. But then, how can we figure out which companies would honor intrinsic life when everything is so blended and obscure? This lesson has left me with many unanswered questions.