FIFA VS International Bank Scandals

Join me in Colombia this December and in Guatemala in January. Details below.You don’t have to be a soccer fan to know about the recent FIFA scandal. FIFA is the governing body for soccer, the world’s most popular sport. Leaders in the organization have been charged with corruption, graft, extortion, and stunning disregard for the human costs of their success. But FIFA is just one in a long tradition of giant, arrogant members of the corporatocracy who seem to think they are above the law.While this scandal is certainly newsworthy, the real outrage is the criminal bankers who have been making untold billions by illegally manipulating exchange rates for years. The world of sports is acting as a smoke screen, shielding the Justice Department from blame for irresponsibly ignoring the banking world. Instead of indicting individual bankers, the true masterminds behind this “breathtaking conspiracy,” as US Attorney General Loretta Lynch has called it, all the attention has been directed at the banks as entities. There are individual men and women behind the crimes of these international banks, people who should be brought to justice instead of protected by an armor of wealth and power. After the 2012 banking scandal around Libor – the “London Interbank Offered Rate” – there is no excuse for letting this travesty get swept under the rug.International banking and the interest and exchange rates it controls are much more significant to all our lives than soccer. There is a bigger scandal brewing there, major banks have admitted to criminal activities, agreed to pay fines of about $10 billion, and yet not a single banker has been indicted. Why, we should all be asking ourselves, are banking executives above the law while those at FIFA are not? Clues: which group belongs to the corporatocracy? Who hires tens of thousands of Washington deal-makers and lobbyists? Who owns US Congress people?Calling themselves the “Cartel,” a conglomerate of international banks has come under fire for manipulating foreign exchange rates, among other charges, to illegally increase the banks’ profits exponentially. These once-respected financial institutions, including Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, and JP Morgan Chase, acted as if they were untouchable and pursued wealth at all costs. The punishments for this long standing betrayal of the world’s trust are fines and penalties, with the occasional firing of bankers. The amount of these fines is hardly a punishment that fits the crime. The Justice Department needs to indict the ringleaders, the human beings behind these criminal acts. They cannot be allowed to hide behind shadowy and impersonal corporate logos.Even while turning a blind eye to the crimes of the banking empire in favor of the sports arena, indicting a few members of FIFA is too little too late. Arresting members of a multinational sports corporation will not change the way the corporatocracy exploits the people of the world and damages the future for all of us. And the fact that corporations like Nike that are partners of FIFA seem to escape the net in this case, illustrates the selective immunity of money and power.While it is good that the Justice Department is going after individual executives at FIFA for criminal activities, it is hard to ignore the blatant double standard. Individual bankers and other members of the corporatocracy are committing much more serious crimes, ones that impact the global economy and the lives of all of us. Yet those people whose job it is to bring justice to the US and the world are focusing on sports, hoping to distract us from the more egregious issues by other multinational corporations and organizations. We must hold them to a higher standard and demand that they pursue not just the company as a whole but the men and women who think they are above the law.Upcoming Trips:A Journey to the Land of Transformation:The Mountains, Jungles & Caribbean Coast of ColombiaShapeshifting Ourselves and the World with John Perkins and Daniel KoupermannDecember 4th – 13th, 2015John and Daniel will be leading a transformative trip to Colombia as 2015 winds to a close. Colombia is known as the “keystone” to Latin America – the birthplace of ancient traditions and harbinger for hope. It is where John Perkins learned the lessons of an Economic Hit Man in the 1970s. Today it is leading the way to healing the wounds that cause environmental devastation, economic and social upheaval, and terrorism. (Please see the Trip page for a full itinerary and registration details.)A Journey to the Lands of the Maya: GuatemalaShapeshifting into Higher Consciousness with John Perkins and Daniel KoupermannJanuary 15th – 22nd, 2016John and Daniel will be leading a trip to the sacred sites of Guatemala in January (Please visit the trip page for dates and Itinerary). John and Mayan shamans will facilitate magical life-changing fire ceremonies. You will learn how to apply “shapeshifting” approaches, elevate yourself to higher states of consciousness, and transform yourself and the world around you.For information about making a deposit to reserve your space for either or both of these trips, please contact Linda Leyerle at lleyerle@aol.com.