You are a machinist who lives in a megacity slum. People have streamed in from the countryside to find work making footwear for America and Europe. The factories sprawl across the floodplain, where there are government tax incentives to build. When a dam collapses, the water pours out of the reservoir, demolishing buildings and killing people. Was the dam failure caused by faulty construction or nearby oil drilling? You are knee-deep in water, surrounded by grieving people, when you see a boat-load of Americans cutting past. They are wearing flak-jackets and talking into their phones. One of them takes your picture. Are they international aid workers or private military contractors, journalists or oil company PR men? For you, at this moment, it doesn’t matter. See some radical thinking on the ‘security-development complex’ here: