i3 Presents: Economic Colonialism & Redemptive Power of Indigenous Cultures

Recruited into the ranks of an international engineering/consulting firm as a young man, Perkins’ beat was Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, where he developed cost justifications for huge infrastructure projects—highways, bridges, port facilities and the like—funded by the World Bank and other aid organizations. All too often the debtor nations defaulted on the loans, leaving them beholden to the lenders, who extracted natural resource concessions and political favors. When the leaders of these nations did not cooperate, they were overthrown or assassinated. Recognizing the harm wrought by his work, Perkins suffered a crisis of conscious, leaving his lucrative position and eventually telling all in his international bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Today Perkins works in many of these same countries and speaks at venues around the world as an advocate for indigenous rights and spokesperson for their cultural wisdom. Come hear this fascinating story from a consummate storyteller, and his message of hope from indigenous peoples — especially those of Latin American jungles — still threatened by the very sort of developments he’d once promoted.