Saturday, June 17, 2017

A fire in the world’s laundromat


This isn’t a story about the disaster in Grenfell tower. If you want to know about that, then I recommend Dawn Foster. But it is a story about housing in London. It is a story about how communities became commodities and people were subordinated to money. And it is an important part of the under told history of modern Britain.

But it starts with a Neapolitan. Specifically, with the body-guard protected writer Roberto Saviano. The Italian author and journalist is well-known world-wide as the leading expert in the Calambrian mafia. Saviano has written about crime in Italy and about international drug money. He’s followed the flows of cash and he’s been awarded numerous prizes and honourary degrees for his work. But of all of the places he’s researched, he holds particular contempt for one.

Speaking last year, Saviano said:

“If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth, you might tell me, well it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy and I will tell you it’s the UK.”

This isn’t because he thinks that the police in Britain generally accept more bribes than others, nor that our politicians stuff their brief cases with brown envelopes more than others. Rather, it’s because of the role of the City of London in laundering the proceeds of crime across the world. It’s because of the place that London takes at the heart of the planet’s biggest network of tax-havens and secrecy areas; which extends to our Overseas Territories, through the Crown Protectorates, and into the imperial metropolis itself.

But it’s not just Saviano, and it’s not just about the Cayman islands.  (more...)


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1 comment:

  1. Jay Dyer has done excellent work in regard to exposing Anglo-American power, particularly in his in depth analysis of Quigley's Tragedy and Hope.

    https://jaysanalysis.com/2012/01/25/tragedy-and-hope-and-economics/

    https://jaysanalysis.com/2016/11/12/half-trump-tragedy-hope-pt-8-the-philosophy-of-globalism-conclusion-video/

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