Outline Lecture Fourteen—The Shackles of Neocolonialism
Key Questions: 1) What are the similarities and differences between imperialism and neo-colonialism? 2) How can a Third world nation best achieve self-reliance and self-empowerment in a post-colonial era?
I) The New Mask of Imperialism—Neocolonialism a) Definition of Neocolonialism i) Independence in theory vs. dependency in practice ii) Control by global financial consortium iii) Why more insidious form of imperialism? b) The Neocolonial Agenda behind “Aid” i) International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (1) System of “revolving credit” ii) Maintaining small, dependent, non-diversified economies (1) Mono-cropping (2) Forced to sell low, buy high iii) Little towards education (1) Education leads to political consciousness c) Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism i) Advocated a diversified, LARGE economy among African nations ii) Economic retaliation from the West d) Only safe aid is “military aid” i) Protect the neocolonial structure of exploitation
II) Poverty and the “SAPing the Third World” a) The First World’s Stranglehold of the Third World i) Imposition of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in 1980s (1) IMF and World Bank mandates on most Third World countries (2) Globalization of Reaganomics (laissez-faire, privatization, free trade, etc.) ii) Why zero tolerance for deviation from “free market” system? (1) Cold war mentality: (2) Prioritized growth of First World economies through globalization (3) Anticipated turn-around in 1990s b) Consequences in the Third World i) Plight of Poverty (1) Between 1980 and 1986, urban poverty in Latin America rose by 50% (2) Social spending declined by 50% ii) Downward Mobility (1) “The same adjustments that crushed the poor and the public-sector middle class offered lucrative opportunities to privatizers, foreign importers, narcotrafficantes, military brass, and political insiders. Conspicuous consumption reached hallucinatory levels in Latin America and Africa during the 1980s as the nouveau riches went on spending sprees in Miami and Paris [and La Jolla] while their shantytown compatriots starved” (Davis 157) iii) Breakdown of Family Structure iv) Terminus of labor migration from Central America
III) Urban Poverty and the Demographic Crisis a) Urban Shift i) Exponential growth in human population ii) Demographic explosion in cities b) Urban and Poor i) UN Human Settlement Programme’s The Challenge of Slums (1992) ii) Health and environment hazards (1) Very little public infrastructure (2) Life-threatening housing conditions iii) Not Pull but Push (1) UN study pointed to the adverse impact of 1980s SAPs (2) Urban squatters filling in as “reserve labor force” c) Slums as “Volcanoes Waiting to Erupt”? i) Religious fundamentalism as proxy for the state ii) Appeal of extremist ideology iii) Slums as breeding ground of radical extremism and social instability d) Alternative and Emerging Global Consensus i) Inequality is not only an ethical problem, but is also a practical, economic one ii) Thus, inequality does not fuel growth, but hampers it