Publisher : Blackstone Audiobooks
Publication Date : 2005 05
>> First Half is OK
if you re educated about US latin america foreign affairs from 60 s to 80 s this book should not surprised you But it s an interesting reading and worthwhile reading First 4 chapters are more telling and rest of book is expendable
>> Everything was great except for the main character
I gave the book four stars for it s coverage of American empiricism in the 20th century Although there isn t anything new in this book Perkins does a credible job revealing how thinly disguised American foreign policy is for it s true purpose of gaining new markets for American private industry His coverage of Latin America and America s intervention is truly insightful I also enjoyed his portrayal of big oil s role in Asia and our role in building the Saudi kingdom
I took away two stars however for the author s endless moralizing throughout the book We have a saying in the west that an environmentalist is someone who already has his cabin in the woods The joke highlights the hypocrisy common in our culture Perkins embodies this hypocrisy but not in an amusing way He begins his career in the Peace Corps and ends it giving tours in the Amazon In between he managed to cash in on 30 years of enormous payoffs doing the very activities he condemns He endlessly repeated how he knew what he was doing was wrong but the money bought his participation He left repeatedly only to go back for the money He even started an alternative energy company only to sell it out to big oil for you got it huge money
In the end I found Perkins life story a detraction to an otherwise worthwhile book I don t know the man and won t pass judgment on him but the character in this book is easy to despise I know a few people like this character people who have million dollar homes 50 yachts and millions of frequent flier miles who claim to be concerned with exploitation of the poor and world carbon emissions Their concerns are genuine but their greed and sense of self entitlement is a far stronger passion Their hypocrisy makes them as endearing as something I d scrape off the bottom of my shoe with a stick
Well done Perkins you bilked me out of 15 bucks for which I received very little in return But then by your own account you are a professional
>> A total fabrication
I spent most of my working career overseas on behalf of the U S Gov t
There is no such thing as an economic hitman or any job resembling what Perkins claims he did
This is a total fabrication and Perkins is a con man
