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Flashmag December 2018 www.flashmag.net
created by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1879 to raise the necessary funds and carry out the project. While the project proved more expensive than expected, Lesseps had to launch a public subscription, which saw the contribution of small shareholders. Part of the funds raised was used by financier Jacques de Reinach to lobby, bribing journalists and illegally obtaining support from political figures. The Universal Company of the Interoceanic Canal of Panama was finally put into bankruptcy, a bankruptcy, which ruined over 85,000 small savers. The Baron de Reinach who in fact was a banker of German Jewish origin, was found dead while several French politicians who had been greased to advance the project of Ferdinand de Lesseps were accused of corruption.
While the Panama site was splashed by bankruptcy and scandals of embezzlement, William Nelson Cromwell and the engineer Philippe Bunau-Varilla who although a shareholder in the previous project of the Canal, had rather managed to enrich himself in the ruinous venture, will approach the White House and the American Congress to convince decision makers, developing a strategy that will be promising. They sold the project to the United States, exaggerating the natural danger of building the Canal in Nicaragua. On June 16, 1902, the members of the American Congress received envelopes containing stamps showing the volcanic activity of Nicaragua. Also, against
the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee Walker, the Spooner amendment allowed the acquisition of the rights of exploitation of the Canal in the United States for forty million dollars. The vote of June 19th, 1902, gave five votes in advance in favor of Panama. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of November 18, 1903, concluded the sale of the rights of exploitation and construction of the canal to the United States. Panama, which had recovered its independence from Colombia two weeks before, will not recover any rights to this canal until 1999, after the Carter Torrijos Treaty of 7 September 1977, which amended the 1903 treaty of the perpetual exploitation of the canal by the United States.
Beyond seeking the support of the executive and parliamentary power of the States, in the realization of the economic projects, it often happens that the lobbies initiate steps to change, or create laws that favor the realization of certain agendas. Also, tacitly the high-tech lobby has always supported politicians who pledged to create liberticidal laws that involve increased monitoring of citizens by technological means produced by the proponents of these lobbies. Similarly, weaponries lobbies would always support military intervention that means wars, as well as the rights of citizen of a country like the United States to carry weapons, for the obvious reason that, it’s a huge source of business opportunities.
However, more often the lobby par excellence that is the government, is also putting pressure on companies producing high technology to enlist their help it in the realization of wacky diaries. Dexterously handling the carrot and the stick, when the awarding of the lucrative markets is not enough to convince the leaders of companies like, Microsoft to introduce a spy program on behalf of the American government in computers used by those who use Windows, threats or legal attacks are often used in retaliation, such as the anti-trust lawsuit against Bill Gates and Microsoft. Even if it is necessary to recognize the oligopoly of Microsoft in the construction of certain software like Windows, it is not less true, as some analysts admit, that the attacks against Microsoft would be the retributive counterpart of the US government against companies that do not want to cooperate.