No, the term didn't originate around cute, overpriced clothing.

the usmc learned it's trade ' south of the border, acting as the enforcer for united fruit. when it came time to spread democracy in the phillipines and south east asia, they knew how to do it.

of course, the army already knew, from cleaning up terrorists in the west.

americans still imagine they are a peaceful, christian nation. shows how important it is to write the history books.

Guatemala's president Arbenz cleverly initiated land reform by forcibly buying fallow land from the largest landowners at the prices declared by the landowners themselves on their tax documents. United Fruit had of course been lowballing this figure to cheat on their taxes.

Arbenz was a democratically elected president. He gave the Mayan majority, perhaps for the first time, a voice in the government. What the US and United Fruit did was a crime, plain and simple. It precipitated 30 years of civil war and tens of thousands of deaths. This article is useful in pointing out one fact: Bush is not breaking any new ground. He is just more brazen than his predecessors.

Thank you, Ms. Mieszkowsk, for giving us something of actual substance and a great refresher on how Central America got so screwed up. For reasons too personal to go into here, I really, really appreciate this well-researched and written piece of history. It is extremely relevant right now, too, although I'll bet it goes right by a lot of the readers more interested in the current mud battle going on in most of the other areas here. Still, for those who bother to read, it's really very edifying and reminds me of why the early 70s were especially unnerving for me.

Great job! Could we have more like this? Joan?

AJCalhoun wrote:

Thank you, Ms. Mieszkowsk, for giving us something of actual substance and a great refresher on how Central America got so screwed up

Not only CA, but also the Caribbean. Chiquita went after all the Caribbean banana-growing states in 1999, and took their case to the WTO. At the time, the Caribbean nations (St. Lucia, St. Vincent, etc.) had asked the EU for preferential trade agreements - by virtue of being former British colonies. The EU agreed to accept disproportionate shipments of bananas from those island growers.

However, Chiquita found out and reported it to the World Trade Organization, and demanded satisfaction - and no further preference in trade. The WTO agreed, the EU backed down, and now those banana growing islands are up to their eyeballs growing marijuana and causing consternation as the drugs and their transhipments proliferate.

- Sigmund Freud, as channeled by John Belushi.

Maybe it's just me but it feels like every story at Salon is inspired by recent or not so recent topics/authors/interviews by Terry Gross. I guess it's not a "bad" thing it is just a strange correlation. Terry Gross is one of the worst interviewers I've ever listened to. "Umm"/long pause, "So"/here comes another pointless query, ... "How did that make you feel?/rape story, duh!", "What was the inspiration for that song?/obvious in the title". Very much some third grade debate team stuff.

When certain types of broad-appeal books are published, the publishing companies' PR departments will arrange for a promotion tour for the author. The tour can involve the author traveling doing readings and signings at book stores around the country, radio and TV interviews, press interviews, etc. The point is that all these activities get lumped together during a concise period while the publishing company is pushing PR for the book.

They do exactly the same for movie publicity. You might see the stars from a big movie to be released next weekend appear on Leno and Letterman and The Daily Show and The Today Show during the course of this week. It's not poaching, copying or flattery - it is a product of the logistics of PR.

What a load of socialist propaganda, Katherine... free trade is the exact opposite of the banana republic policies described here, where militarily/governmentally enforced taxes and regulations coupled to political/economic favoritism created a millionaire politico-business class while increasing poverty among the rest. Of course, violence was the result and remains the result since the exact same socialist tax and squander is still applied by the rulers du jour. Free trade is a mutually satisfactory exchange of resources or labor, no taxes, no regulations; certainly no violence to enforce preferential treatment for any business with mandated hardship for the rest...that’s why it’s called _free_ trade. Without the _voluntary_ aspect it's not even "trade," never mind free trade.

was coined by the writer O.Henry

This is really nothing new, sadly - tea, coffee, diamonds, rubber, the fur trades, The East India Company, who even had their own navy - all have used closed company societies to exploit and enrich the few at the top at the expense of the millions of slaveys, and none of 'em ever thought twice about an overthrow or two...or more. Massacres abound in their histories, and often with the open enthusiasm of their home governments - Smedley Butler hit the nail on the head there. They all portrayed themselves as noble efforts, even heroic, altho I can't remember another with such a clever jingle as Chiquita, itself somewhat disturbing in co-opting a cuddly name to replace "United Fruit" - but when people in your own backyard in New York City are trying to blow you up, it prolly pays to seem colorfully non-threatening.

Those Frankincense and Myrrh dealers? They were brutal.

Those Frankincense and Myrrh dealers? They were brutal.

Freedom and democracy was brought to the native Americans in the same fashion. Banana republics were the next step, Iraq is just another one.Bullying big business rules!

I think at any rate there's nothing that can be done. I hat ethat it's so hopeless, but when all the people who have all of the power just keep hurting all of the people with none of the power it will just keep happening, no matter how bright a light is shone up on it.