Customer Reviews:
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 McMafia - powered by illegal drugs April 24, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
McMafia is an argument for the legalisation of drugs. Without explicitly demanding such a thing, it gives the best possible argument for legalising all narcotics; that drug money is the engine of the McMafia.
Misha Glenny covers many more McMafia activities; cigarette smuggling, investment scams, slavery, fake goods, intimidation etc, but behind them all lies drugs and the massive profits they engender.
He points out that we in the west are largely to blame. We buy the fake DVDs, hire the slaves and turn a blind eye to the sweatshops. Mainly, we buy the drugs.
The author's point is that so long as the drug barons grow fat on human misery, so will the McMafia thrive.
A riveting read.
A dazzling exposition of modern organised crime April 22, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
In McMafia, Misha Glenny meets some of the underworld's villains and scammers and puts a human face to the vast conspiracies which we hear so much about, but ultimately know so little. He is an entertaining, affable guide, a meticulous researcher and, it would appear, a brave journalist. He writes with candour, incisiveness and occasional humour. This is a very different work to his books on the Balkans, but the skills that made them such good books are much in the evidence here as well.
Glenny takes us on a world tour of global crime: from the insidious backstreets of the ex-Soviet bloc, where James Bond-esque baddies lurk in every corner, to Nigeria, Brazil, Japan and China. Although the chapter titles - such as `The Future of Organised Crime' - suggest a thematic approach, it is more geographic than that, which actually makes it all the more readable.
My only problems are with the title - which suggests that the global underworld somehow replicates himself everywhere and is anodyne for it, when Glenny shows that it is not - and the lack of over-arching hypothesis - this isn't a book about the globalisation of crime, we are told at the end, when the preceding 400 pages would suggest that it is.
But as part travelogue, part social history this is nevertheless an excellent read. It is an urgent, compelling book, which I read over only a couple of days and would recommend to anyone with the vaguest interest in organised crime.
If you loved Freakonomics or Fast Food Nation, read this book April 14, 2008
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
If you've ever bought knocked off cigarettes or DVDs, taken recreational drugs or paid for sex then you're part of the problem. So says Misha Glenny as he takes us on a spellbinding tour from leafy suburban England where a housewife is mistakenly assassinated instead of her sister, through Bulgaria with its muscle men who would be funny if they weren't so scary, to the black market free for all created by sanctions in the Balkans, to Russia, Africa, India, Israel, Europe, Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, the US, Canada, Japan and China.
This is an amazing book that tells you how the fall of communism and the deregulation of the financial markets have coincided to create a crime bonanza; 20% of the world's GDP comes from illicit activity.
It's eye-poppingly good. Everyone should read it.
Disturbing but enlightening April 3, 2008
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
Living in a 'nice', law abiding country like the UK it's easy to be ignorant of, or turn a blind eye to the darker side of life that most people on earth have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.
My wife is Russian and her family lived through the collapse of the USSR and the period they refer to as 'The Lawless Times' in the early 90s. Speaking to them about it brings home just how tough you had to be to survive back then, and it's no surprise that some people rose to the top to fill the vaccuum left when the forces of law and order collapsed.
Tough people took what they could, weaker people suffered - along with their families. We're now living with the consequences of this collapse and the following rise of criminal gangs to the size multi-national corporations.
This book covers much more than the collapse of the communist states, and shows how the networks of criminality have linked up across continents and become powerful, sophisticated money making machines that thrive on the suffering of others.
Eye opening and a little frightening, this book will change your perspective on the world and will help you understand how the 'nice' countries like ours are the ones that have made these enormous empires possible through things like our demand for recreational drugs and sex with foreign prostitutes.
very well written and highly recommended.
Alarming and intriging March 31, 2008
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
An excellent expose and account of what is happening in our world today.
We are all culpable and this is the frightening part. Read the book to see why and how. It's very well researched, and has the quality of a first rate thriller.
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