I just read this post, Walmart to Chileans - “We Can Only Spare A Dime” from John Perkins, author of Hoodwinked over at the The Huffington Post and thought it was interesting, and poignant, enough to share here. Check it out:

Walmart to Chileans - “We Can Only Spare A Dime”

“They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?”
(Yip Harburg, lyrics, “Brother Can You Spare A Dime")

My prayers go out to the Chilean people during this time of crisis. I also feel it’s incredibly important in light of Walmart’s announcement yesterday that they would be donating a million dollars in aid, to provide some perspective on this “corporatocracy” in action.

On January 23, 2009, barely a year and a half ago Walmart’s press release touted “Walmart Confims Successful Tender Offer for D&S - Investment provides major foothold in key South American market.” While most North Americans, financial analysts and journalists did not take note of this announcement, those of us tired of being “hoodwinked” certainly did.

D&S at the time of the acquisition was Chile’s largest food retailer. Walmart’s Executive vice president and CEO of the Americas, Craig Herkert said, “Partnering with D&S, with its strong brands, and its position as Chile’s largest food retailer, is an important step in implementing Walmart’s international strategy. We continue to focus on portfolio optimization, global leverage and winning in every market.”

Walmart, because of this acquisition, now owns 58.2 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of D&S, while the Chilean owners now only hold 40.1 percent, with the remainder 1.7 percent being held by the public.

In both my books, HOODWINKED and THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE, I’ve noted Walmart as a one of the companies that has avoided a true commitment to environmentally or socially responsible operations.

Walmart, Monsanto, De Beers, Exxon Mobile, Adidas, Ford, and GE are just some of the companies that exploit labor forces and destroy the environment in the name of enhancing their “portfolio optimization, global leverage” and greed-driven bottom lines.

When I read the announcement of Walmart pledging an initial one million dollars to aid grief-stricken Chile on Saturday, I could not help recalling the lyrics of Brother Can You Spare A Dime. Written in 1931, today it continues to herald the great failure of the predatory form of capitalism I write about in HOODWINKED.

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After dragging its feet for months, Wal-Mart has finally decided to make good on its promise to donate to the earthquake relief in Sichuan, China by actually donating something!  On October 26, Wal-Mart held a donation ceremony (pictured on the right) to donate 2,566,000RMB (about $375,000) worth of ambulances and medical supplies to 20 different organizations in several cities throughout Sichuan.  And never one to miss out on publicity, Wal-Mart has even tagged the ambulances with the Wal-Mart brand (pictured after the jump).

Since the 8.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Sichuan in May, Wal-Mart has been plagued by criticism for its relatively low donation to the earthquake relief and Wal-Mart’s failure to live up to said donations.  Wal-Mart China’s PR director, Jonathan Dong, has been working overtime defending the company’s image - even writing to Wal-Mart Watch, imploring us not to spread negative stories about Wal-Mart’s donation fiasco. Asked why Wal-Mart hadn’t fulfilled its donation pledge, Dong stated that spending money is difficult! Fortunately for Mr. Dong, it looks like this problem may finally be ending.

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You might recall several posts we did regarding Wal-Mart’s donations to China’s earthquake relief efforts.  Those posts all cited numerous articles which detailed not only Wal-Mart’s meager donation pledges, but also that Wal-Mart had largely failed to follow through on their donations.  Worse, another story surfaced about how Wal-Mart would potentially profit off the earthquake victims by building stores in the earthquake region.

All these posts were a bit too much for Wal-Mart China’s director of public relations Jonathan Dong.  He even wrote us a strongly worded letter to express his dismay.  Unfortunately for Jonathan Dong, this story just won’t end.

According to a recent article from Beibu Gulf ASEAN Economic Web, Wal-Mart STILL has not met its donation targets!  Luckily, Jonathan has prepared a response:  “Spending money is hard.”

Public relations director Jonathan Dong (董玉国) explained “contributing money is easy; spending money is difficult. On May 23, Wal-Mart decided to give away an additional 17 million .  The company immediately looked for projects to aid, looking at subsidizing schools, orphanages, etc.  But Wal-Mart found out that many [companies] were financing the same projects.” At present time, Wal-Mart is in the process of seeking suitable projects to support.

Imagine that.