Savage Capitalism and the Myth of Democracy: Latin America in the Third Millennium [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Dr. Hogan writes a highly engaging and intellectually stimulating perspective on life in Latin America over the past one hundred years. His chronicle of each part of the region comes from research and his personal experience, and paints a refreshing version of reality and life in Latin America than one will not find from most main-stream media sources. Hogan is not afraid to challenge, and call into question, the role of the church, US government, and multi-national corporations with respect to their involvement in the shaping and manipulation of modern Latin America. Not only does he identify issues and their causes, but he offers realistic and feasible solutions. His emphases on the need for more rigorous and quality education is not a 'flash in the pan' short-term band-aid, but offers the only realistic long-term solution to many of the social issues which plague this part of the world. This solution, in fact, is necessary in all parts of the world if we wish to return the concept of democracy to its' original purpose. Hogan steps out of the box and offers a much needed analysis of contemporary Latin America, potentially one of the world's next major cinder boxes. This book is a must read for anyone living or working in this region of the world. This book is a must read for every person influencing the creation of state department policy. This book is a must read for every global citizen who cares deeply about humanity and wants to seek compassionate answers to today's perplexing problems.

With his latest book, Savage Capitalism and the Myth of Democracy, Michael Hogan takes his place among writers and analysts, such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Paul Krugman, and Amy Goodman, who analyze complex political, economic, cultural, and educational issues in the Americas and around the world. They are not politicians, not supporters of any particular party or movement. They are truth tellers in the Socratic tradition. They travel, study, write, research, and analyze. They make suggestions on how to improve education, governments, and economies so that they serve all people rather than just the wealthy elite. They are liberal in the traditional sense of that word and its associations with liberty, generosity, tolerance, and humanitarian reform.

Hogan has lived and worked as an educator and writer in Mexico for twenty years. He has written in many major genres, including poetry, fiction, essays, and history. One of his best known books, The Irish Soldiers of Mexico, brings to light, through painstaking research and analysis, a little known but telling episode during the Mexican American War when a group of Irish American soldiers deserted the American Army and went over to the Mexican side. Indeed, this book became the basis of a movie released in 1999, One Man's Hero, starring Tom Berenger. His latest book, Savage Capitalism, combines many of his prior interests with keen political and economic analysis based on his extensive knowledge of Latin America, much of it gleaned from personal, professional experience throughout this diverse region. Some of the most poignant passages in the book, such as the chapters on Central America, give detailed first-hand accounts of the poverty, gang violence, crime, and repression that haunt the streets and barrios of its principal cities. Through historical analysis, he shows how these conditions have evolved over two hundred years. He shows how prisons and slums have become breeding grounds for large, powerful gangs on both sides of the border. We see how crime, violence, and corrupt government are undermining and replacing the native traditions of order, decency, and self-sustaining industry. Other passages probe the intimate details, so often hidden from American view, of how inequities in the coffee trade directly affect thousands of workers in Colombia, keeping them burdened with backbreaking labor for very low wages. We learn how huge agri-businesses, fueled by unfair subsidies, have seriously damaged traditional agriculture and industry in Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries. Through his detailed analysis of the role of the Catholic Church in countries such as El Salvador and Nicaragua, we come to share his deep, abiding disappointment in the failure of the Church bureaucracy to recognize and to support leaders of reform, such as Archbishop Oscar Romero, who fought against the horrors of economic and military dictatorship in support of basic rights for all people.

But what is makes this book different from mere academic analysis is that Hogan gives practical suggestions on how things can be changed from an on-the-ground, non-ideological point of view. Noam Chomsky writes that Hogan's "lucid and thoughtful essays provide a valuable picture of Latin America from a point of view that is perceptive, often controversial, but always instructive." It is rare praise indeed, and well-earned.

Written from the perspective of an American educator living and working in Mexico for almost two decades, Savage Capitalism and the Myth of Democracy is relevant to students and educators, leaders and future leaders and for all those who participate in this Hemisphere's political system, constituents and policy makers alike. This collection of essays carefully examines the problems Latin American societies face today, including the lack of accountability for serious human rights violations, environmental damages, social inequality and serious deficiencies in education. The link Dr. Hogan establishes between the region's current social and economic challenges and neoliberal policies that have been forcefully implemented for decades is supported by his research both on the field and academically. He highlights the negative impact U.S. foreign policy has sometimes had in Latin America to provide a historical context that will, no doubt, improve the complex inter-regional relationship in the hopes that all Americans (North Americans, Central Americans and South Americans) can unite to become a secure, sustainable and just region. Hogan proposes several concrete policy solutions focusing on the role of quality education. A good education should not just allow, but encourage students to challenge assumptions, i.e., that laissez faire economics is the most democratic economic system, or that one single economic or political system is right for every country. Speaking of great teachers of the past, Hogan writes, "All of them (Socrates, Aristotle, Einstein, etc) saw the job of the teacher as one of questioning ideological certitude, contradicting overly simplistic formulations, and encouraging their students to do so." Contemporary teachers working abroad must challenge themselves to do the same despite pressure from school administrators and government agencies. Readers familiar with Hogan's historical works such as The Irish Soldiers of Mexico will appreciate both the careful historical analysis as well as the clear and lively writing style. In my view this book ranks right up there with Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America. It belongs on every educator's bookshelf.