Ruling the World

Years ago, I worked for a company owned, in part, by a family that was one of the movers and shakers of the Seattle business community. It was an interesting time. While I was working my ass off fifty to eighty hours a week, depending on the season, I also received a valuable education about the conglomerate that generated my paychecks. I learned that there was a small, powerful group of individuals at the core of just about every viable corporation in King County. The tentacles of which had already reached as far south as Oregon (and me), and beyond.

I remember being fascinated, disgusted, and a little frightened at the workings of the group. They had such an incestuous relationship. Everything was intertwined, they all sat on each others’ boards, they bought and sold companies among themselves as offhandedly as if it was all some giant Monopoly game. If one of them happened to get stuck with a dog, they would see if they could trick one of the others into taking it off their hands. I know this, because the company I worked for happened to be one of the dogs, and we changed "ownership" at least four times in the eight years I worked there. We were passed around like a hot potato. Like whoever was holding us when the music stopped was "out."

Eventually, I realized we, the everyday workers, the swarm of peons at the bottom of the food chain, were merely ants attracted by the careless crumbs of this elite ensemble. Just as easily disposed of when we became a nuisance. Quite the a-ha moment, when you realize exactly for what--and for whom--you are pouring out a hefty portion of your life force.

This all came back to me in a decidedly déjà vu sort of way when the Dubai/ports story broke last week. I have to admit--I thought, at first, that Administration critics in Congress were simply jumping on the racist, anti-Arab, post-9/11-fear-factor bandwagon in order to pile on the President and beat him down a few more points in the polls. But as the story unfolded, parts of it started to sound very fishy. First reported was Bush’s shockingly strong roar that he would veto any attempt by Congress to quash the ports deal. Immediately followed by a statement put out by the Press Secretary that the President hadn’t even known about the deal until he read it in the press a few days prior. Why exactly would he threaten a presidential veto on something that was so unimportant that he didn’t even know about it until he read it in the papers? Didn’t sound quite right to me…

I’m fortunate that I got the story from NPR that day. They happened to dig a little deeper than the, "Oh, no, A-rabs in charge of our ports!" aspect of the whole thing. They ran a short piece on first brother Neil Bush’s ties to Dubai. That story started a little videotape in my head having to do with President Bush’s gratuitous photo opps with Crown Prince Abdullah last April, in response to Americans’ barely-acknowledged squeaking about energy prices. Which led me to contemplate the tie that binds these elite international business people into one big happy family—oil. The money, the power…the magic elixir with which they truly do believe they rule the world. At all costs, those relationships must be maintained, strengthened and cherished. Dubai scratches Neil Bush’s entrepreneurial itch; the Bush cartel greases the skids for the ports deal. The world continues turning…with this small, incestuous group of incredibly wealthy men at its hub. And as long as they are happy, we ants might hope for another year of crumbs to fall our way and keep us alive.

I don’t know about you, but I find this way more disturbing than the idea of a guy in a turban checking the contents of shipping containers at the Port of New York…

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