Post-Colonial Development Strategy
‘Imperial policies’ and the market enterprise did
not end with colonialism; it was given a new name with ‘Development’.
With independence and the postwar ‘development decades’ that
followed, Third World states became tied to the world system of trade,
finance and investment with the TNCs in the forefront of this economic
order. With the help of local elites, which the colonial government had
successfully nurtured, integration of postcolonial societies into the
world economic system became entrenched. To enable the newly independent
states to catch up with their former colonial masters, it was believed
that economic development was the answer. This panacea for the major
ills of the Third World was foisted on the latter in no time.
Aid programmes in the form of ‘Development Aid’
from the rich Northern countries and the World Bank (WB) and commercial
banks, including foundations (like Ford and Rockefeller) and research
institutions all played a major or significant role in the adoption of a
development model imposed from the North. Cold War ideology played a
significant role in development policy and population control was used
as a key instrument to further that goal. Under the guidance of
Rockefeller III the Population Council was established in 1952. Drawing
support from the Ford Foundation and the World Bank, international birth
control programmes targeted Third World women exposing them to dangerous
technologies very often under dubious circumstances without their
informed consent or against their will.
The WB-promoted post colonial model advised Third
World nations to plant more commodities for export which led to
oversupply, lower prices, falling terms of trade, environmental
degradation and increasing poverty.
For instance, USAID, private banks and US led
multilateral banks like the Inter-American Development Bank and the WB
provided cheap loans to Guatemala to transform its ‘backward’
economy into an agro-export for the international market. Land
concentration and commercialisation of agriculture led to increasing
food insecurity among the peasants. In recent years with declining
exports, Guatemalan peasants have switched to vegetables, fruits and
flowers for Europe and North American markets. Extensive use of
pesticides and chemical fertilisers have led to a severe impact on the
health of the people and the fertility of the land. By the 1970s
American corporate interests had opened up the country for cash crops
like cotton, sugar and coffee and cattle production (which took away
land for grazing), thus putting pressure on a land hungry rural
population. Several generations of Guatemalans have suffered increasing
material and nutritional deprivation. By the 1980s, more than 80 per
cent of the rural peasantry lived in poverty and over 40 per cent of
them lacked even a minimal diet. Some 81 per cent of all children below
the age of five suffered from malnutrition and nearly a million peasants
were suffering from extreme poverty. This has driven 200,000 Guatemalans
to Mexico and the US to seek work. (Ross 1998:125-29)
One of the most significant developments in western
development strategy in the postwar era was the commercialisation of
Third World agriculture through the Green Revolution (GR). This
Ford-Rockefeller inspired and WB backed scheme led to the transformation
of Third World societies with effects, which were far-reaching and
irreversible. The GR replaced indigenous agriculture with modern
agriculture; it led to the use of high yielding seed varieties leading
to a loss of indigenous rice and wheat varieties (many of them now only
found in the genebanks of the North); the contamination of soils and
water systems from the use of pesticides, chemical fertilisers and
modern irrigation systems and dependence on modern machinery and
technology. Monoculture promoted by the GR in wheat, maize and rice
staples narrowed the basis of food security by displacing diverse
nutritious food grains. In India alone, per capita pulse consumption
dropped by 27 percent between 1964-69 (Wilson, D. 1973:129-144).
According to the FAO, by 2000 the world would have lost some 95 percent
of the genetic diversity used in agriculture at the beginning of the
century.
In Mexico, modernisation of agriculture and the use
of costly chemical inputs led to increased indebtedness and the collapse
of the state cooperatives (ejido sector); concentration of land
holdings, landlessness and increased poverty. By the 1970s, half of the
Mexican population was said to be malnourished. Export led growth
fuelled a decline in domestic food production at the expense of the
dietary needs of Mexico’s rural and urban poor. Fodder production for
livestock and meat products (which catered to the international market
and the wealthy and middle class Mexicans) led to an increase in sorghum
cultivation. By 1984, 50 percent more land was devoted to sorghum than
wheat. In many areas, sorghum had displaced maize and wheat the staples
of the Mexican working class. In fact other feed grains like oats and
soybeans have displaced lands used for maize, wheat and beans. Meat
(animal) production has gobbled up land from 5 per cent in 1960 to over
23 per cent in 1980; while feed grain had increased from 6 percent in
1960 to over 32 percent in 1980.
This led to the marginalisation of the rural
peasantry creating an army of migrant and seasonal workers who led a
tenuous existence. This widespread and growing rural unemployment
produced a scale of migration to Mexican cities, which was ‘unprecedented
in the demographic development of Mexico’. (Ross 1998:173-74) This
model of development resulted in Mexico becoming increasingly dependent
on US food imports. When the debt crisis struck in 1982, food subsidies
were cut by 80 per cent. This further intensified pressures on the
Mexican rural poor and the rural exodus flooded Mexico City or else they
risked life and limb to enter the US.
In India, Punjab was the jewel of the GR introduced
in the mid 1960s. Within two decades, it became a cauldron of ethnic
conflict and ecological crisis. Punjab was left with a legacy of
pesticide poisonings, diseased soils, pest infested crops, destruction
of genetic diversity, water logged deserts, indebted farmers increasing
income disparities, and conflicts over water resources. Between 1985 and
1991, some 15,000 people had already lost their lives in the violence.
The rapid commercialisation and transformation of the economy and
society in Punjab precipitated a moral crisis. Traditional social
relationships and norms broke down resulting in an epidemic of social
diseases such as alcoholism, drug addiction, smoking, the spread of
pornography and violence in the community especially towards women and
children (Shiva 1991:185).
At the same time, dangerous and hazardous
technologies were exported to the Third World. The case of Union Carbide’s
disaster in Bhopal, India, which killed almost 8000 people and maimed
and blinded thousands more, is a telling reminder. Other projects most
of which were instigated by the World Bank or TNCs include dams, nuclear
power plants, and incinerators. Apart from the health concerns, all
these involved many imported components which, the Third World countries
had to pay for foreign technologies, inputs, tractors, machinery,
materials and even consultancy fees. So to find the money to finance
these projects they were forced to export more timber, fish, oil,
minerals, cash crops, and a host of others; depleting their natural
resources and contaminating their soils, waters and air in the process.
This sucked them deeper and deeper into the world economic system. This
model is now firmly internationalised. It has become the universal model
especially with the collapse of the Eastern bloc.
From the above, it can be seen that colonial rule and
post war development strategies played a significant role in the
underdevelopment of the Third World. This resulted in serious social
malaise and ill health for the majority of the people. This development
model has led to increasing polarisation of the North and South (and
within countries in the North and South as well). The net flow of wealth
from the poor countries to the rich from the mid 80s especially in
relation to the debt crisis was $418 billion or the equivalent of six
Marshall Plans (Mihevc 1995:11).
The South not only inherited an economically unequal
world tilted against their favour; political power relations between the
North and the South were entrenched in the UN Security Council where the
Allied nations (the US, UK, France, China and the Soviet Union) agreed
among themselves just before the end of World War II, that they will
have veto powers to police the world.
As global markets expanded, the rich Northern
countries encouraged the independent Third World countries to borrow
money to finance their development. As a result all manner of loans, aid
and instruments were received by Third World governments with the WB
playing a crucial role. This money flows to the South, was good for the
economies of the rich countries as it expanded the North’s markets for
goods and the balance of trade was in their favour due to their control
of the price of commodities. During 1985 and 1986 alone, Third World
countries lost between $60 and $100 billion due to the fall in commodity
prices. The Third World countries were faced with a situation where they
were getting less and less for their exports but having to pay more and
more for manufactured imports from the industrialised North.
At the same time the Third World was accumulating
massive debts as a result of skyrocketting interest rates and the oil
price hikes in late 1973. In the 1970s, a debt crisis was looming ahead;
by 1977, Third World countries were spending 60-90 per cent of their
lending just to service the interests on their debts (Ibid: 61).
The other causes of debt were that monies were spent on armaments, mega
projects and infrastructural development which initially were promoted
by the IFIs (but now blamed for the crisis which emerged); and
non-performing projects and white elephants; while other monies left the
country as capital flight to land in the Swiss bank accounts of corrupt
politicians and dictators. Over $30 billion left Africa in 1990 as
flight capital (Mihevc 1995:130).
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