McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld April 24, 2008

The World Affairs Council of Oregon presents:

Misha Glenny
Author, McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld.
Former BBC correspondent

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the deregulation of financial markets, governments and entrepreneurs alike were intoxicated by forecasts of limitless expansion into new markets. Who would have guessed that the greatest success story would be the globalization of organized crime? Current estimates suggest that illegal trade accounts for nearly one-fifth of global GDP.

McMafia explores this frightening new world of organized crime driven by a seemingly insatiable demand for illegal "goods" ranging from Colombian drugs to Chinese labor, from internet get rich quick schemes to sex workers from Bulgaria. Misha Glenny shows how the material affluence of the West fuels both global crime and terror and how these mafia leverage the poverty of the developing world and use new technology to commit cyber-crime and identity theft. His interviews included police, victims, politicians and members of the global underworld on all continents. He talked with sex slaves in Israel, the "caviar mafia" in Kazakhstan and marijuana traders in British Columbia.

Educated at Bristol University (UK) and Charles University (Prague), Misha Glenny is the author of The Rebirth of History, the fall of Yugoslavia, winner of an Overseas Press Club Award in 1993and The Balkans. During the 1990s he was a correspondent for BBC World Service and won a Sony Award for his coverage of Yugoslavia. He has contributed to most major US and European newspapers and current affairs magazines, been interviewed on talk shows and been consulted by US and European governments on Balkan issues.

Thursday, 24 April 2008,
6:00 p.m. - Come early for happy hour food (not included in price of admission) and to learn about the Infamous Lotus Cardroom's History!

Location:
Lotus Cardroom, 932 SW 3rd Ave. Portland, OR.

$5 for non-members
Free for World Affairs Council members

Official Website: http://www.worldoregon.org/events/registration/MishaGlenny.html