to avoid giving myself away, i work in a public support role for a sector. that sector has hemorrhaged workers since forever, but let's say it has gotten really bad in the last 20 years. the public institutions know this, but try to frame it as an efficiency thing. though with so many collapsed communities and their corpses dotting the landscape, they can't really claim this has all been a win in public.

anyway, we operate in an austerity environment of "cuts-cuts-cuts/do more with less!" so when a few years ago a tech bro douche showed up on the scene and promised to recreate the entire region into a mecca of a very specific and capital intensive form of activity in this industry, the administrators of agencies and public institutions all rolled around on their backs like servile dogs for him. the hype train and red carpet were incredible. after decades of "well, there's no money for anything", suddenly the taps are open, but all for flash and pomp. nothing to actually materially benefit the people here. so much hype. around the same time, a capital formation from western europe (via universities, state agencies, business groups) started making connections to our institutions in a more circumspect manner, looking to "explore feasibility" in expanding this same activity in our region. their state goals are to build our capacity for "professional development" (worker training they don't have to pay for) and increase our capacity so we can become clients of their intellectual property/technology licensing.

those of us with any kind of actual material politics understood the tech bro was doing a hype pump and dump, while the western europeans were here do to some longer term colonialism. our energy and labor costs are rock bottom. it was baffling how the decision makers could not see what the tech bro was doing, who was the more nakedly obvious of the two with the media blitz of bullshit. they were not even aware of the ongoing court cases for fraud filed by his own investors as they happened. they just saw a really rich guy and started drooling and nuzzling his crotch.

of course, in the wake of the last year, tech bro's bubble popped and all of that shit folded with nothing to show for it. the sycophants were shell shocked, and pretended we hadn't urged caution the entire time. the western european colonizers though, are still around and inserting their tentacles into everything. paying for little travel junkets so do nothing clowns with high salaries can feel important. these decision makers are simply fucking enchanted with them and literally refuse to see the transaction for what it is: a fire sale of our natural and human resources for the exact same assholes that have been doing this for centuries.