I could use some education
OK. I'm reading this book called "Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire" by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat. It's basically a retelling of Paul's letter to the Colossians, with a postmodern "slant." I haven't decided if I like it yet or not. I'll post more on that once I finish it.
I'm writing this as a request for input on one of the things I've come across. In chapter 3, the authors are equating globalization of the economy with the worst of the oppresive practices of the Roman empire. Now, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, but I don't understand this perspective, usually associated with "extreme" liberals, that globalization is evil, and the World Bank and IMF are the minions of Satan. I always thought bringing ecomomic growth to developing countries was a good thing!
Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
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Our ethnocentric nature makes it hard for us to believe that "poorer" cultures would not benefit from our intervention. When you combine that with a tendency to "help" countries that might have some natural resources that we could use, it crosses over into exploitation really easy. I can see how this could be an evil or at least a threat in the hands of someone who's heart is not in the right place....or who may have started out with good intentions and then fallen for the greed monster.Anne
I agree with Ms. Anne; it's way to easy for all of that to become exploitation -- and in practice, it generally is. If stuff like the World Bank, et cetera actually worked, then we probably wouldn't have as many 'developing' countries as we actually do.And in those developing countries, all of the resources get hijacked by whomever's in power or by the local warlord. What needs to happen is that whoever is supporting the warlords needs to be rooted out and have economic sanctions posted against them. If being an warlord ceases to be profitable, they'll leave and go be a criminal somewhere else.Our government keeps throwing money at stuff like the World Bank, et cetera, with no stipulations or safeguards against the money being used in a stupid fashion, mainly because no one (in power) really actually cares as long as it turns a profit for 'our side'.That is my cynical tirade of the day. Enjoy. I'm going to go hug a tree now.--Ivy
That is very interesting because I thought it was us conservatives who hated, or strongly dislike to be more Christian about it, the World Bank. Who keeps this thing going, because my conservative buddies are always trying to get rid of it (Pat Robertson writes extensively about its evilness in his book, "The New World Order." The major problem with the world bank is the way it exploits and pays off dictators. The idea of helping poor developing countries is a wonderful thing, but not when all it does is pad the pockets of dictators and warlords.