Must read McMafia - The organised global pillage

[TonyGosling]

The organised global pillage

Misha Glenny's fascinating McMafia investigates the spread of transnational crime since the break-up of the Soviet bloc, says Andrew Anthony



Sunday April 6, 2008
The Observer

McMafia by Misha Glenny
Buy McMafia at the Guardian bookshop

McMafia: Crime Without Frontiers
by Misha Glenny
Bodley Head £20, pp426

A photograph in this book shows three men in swimming costumes at some resort. They are all capaciously built - two of them have pronounced breasts - and they swagger with power and arrogance. Around their necks they sport chains of bling, so massive they would shame even the most extravagant rapper. The caption reads: 'Bulgaria's nascent capitalist class gathers for its annual general meeting.' The words might be ironic, but there is something genuinely disturbing, even mildly terrifying, about the image. It speaks of a sort of ruthless consumption, an appetite for stuff that knows no moral, aesthetic or sensible bounds. You look at it and think: 'I wouldn't want to be in the way of what they want.'...................
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,,22 71281,00.html