What extent is the west to blame for the failure of the global south to achieve economic growth?

‘The law of the strongest is often the only law’ This is one of the many factors highlighted by the Fair Trade Organisation. The fair trade organisation is one of the components that help to explain the economic split between the global north and south. Other components such as corporate responsibility, globalisation or Americanisation and capitalism are also all components that can help to asses how much involvement the west have for the economic split between the global north and south. These factors will be examined in detail.

The notion of an economic spilt between the global south and north can be put down to many factors. However the most prominent factor dates back to the era of colonial times. The Europeans turned to Africa for labour and thus the slave trade began. Prior to the industrial revolution Britain was in the backwater. However they were able to conquer the world with slavery. Strong religious elements from Christianity, which taught to Britain go fourth and conquer, thus markets were opened up, while the armed forces and the navy were the only protectors of trade. Western countries are generally looked upon as rich nations who have a ‘higher per capita product’ This is mainly due to the fact that western society have access to modern technology hence they are more economically developed nations.

In contrast to this, the global south tends to have a much low per capita income. It can be said that the two groups are ‘completely isolate from each other and indeed have no knowledge of each others existence’ this idea however is not totally unrealistic, until European explorers in the late fifth century. Middle America had no knowledge of the existence of Europeans or African societies.

These wide differences economic and social structure can be seen between developed and undeveloped countries. The literacy rates are close to 100 percent while in less developed nations the rate is close to 30 percent. In developing countries 25 percent of the labour force works within agriculture. The gap between the global north and south is also emphasised by the differences in culture ,raced and religion.

Globalisation can be seen as a factor that splits the north and south. As already stated trade barriers opened causing trade to occur throughout the world. However globalisation can also be seen as “Americanisation” and a direct product of capitalism. This is because the countries that can participate in this apparent global phenomenon are the ones who are technologically advanced. On the whole this does not include the south. Immediately the south cannot participate in a global economic phenomenon. Globalisation and fair trade interlink quite strongly. The northern countries have the power to enforced legislation that only affects the poorer southern nations. Therefore the south cannot prosper. An early example of this dates back to when India exported textiles to Britain. India had one of the prosperas textile industries in the world which meat that the British industry was failing. However the British started to enforce subsidies to any textiles coming in from India, but did not carry out this legislation for any products going into India. Hence the Indians could not afford to export to Britain any longer. With cheaper imports arriving from Britain, the Indian textile industry was destroyed. This shows very Cleary that western countries helped to destroy any chance that the global south had to create any stability, thus widen the economic gap. This is also the same for the Indian tea industry. Where multinational companies have cultivated the tea, yet have not paid Indian Farmers, over 22,000 farmers have not yet been paid. It is known that if these global tariffs were lifted, it would boost the developing countries income by $150 billion a year.

Socialism is based upon equality and a strong belief that each person has three roles in their life as a producer, consumer and a citizen and the idea that wealth should be distributed equally. However this perfect moral nation does not exist in practice, as a result privileged and underprivileged groups are created. This then leads to exploitation. The richer nations are stronger and therefore take advantage of the weaker poorer nations. One of the many ways this exploitation is carried out is through ‘political domination, economic pressures, military threats and preventative wars’ are simply examples of ways in which ...

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This can also be seen by the creation of the World Trade Organisation, which promised ‘world wide reductions in trade barriers and guarantees access and equitability’ but one of its main roles according to Clinton was that ‘it created hundreds of thousands of high-paying American jobs, it slashes tariffs on, manufactured and agriculture goods.’ It protected intellectual property and acted as one of the largest taxes cuts in history, yet the most important factor was to make sure that every nation was acting in the same way. As the United States had and has the largest and active economy in the world, it benefited from the WTO the most. An example of this includes the Guatemalan baby crisis. In which a multinational US company sold powdered milk to the Guatemalans, which in turn killed their babies. When the Guatemalan government said the product wouldn’t be allowed back into the country, the US government went to the WTO, which said that if they were to do this would go against the trade agreement. Thus the product is still allowed to be sold there. This is a clear example of how the west and northern nations take advantage of the southern nations for their economic prosperity.

The WTO (World Trade Organisation) claims to protect liberalisation and fair trade. However the Fair Trade Organisation seems in constant battle with the WTO. The WTO acts as more of an unforcement on the south. One of the most extreme examples includes the WTO not changing the Trade Relations intellectual property rights act, so that the poorer nations such as Africa have access to drugs for Aids. This meant that Africa couldn’t make cheaper drugs and sell them to other developing countries, which would affect American pharmaceutical companies. Thus these nations were again left without drugs due to in affordability. This is a prime example of how the north or west is not allowing the south to prosper economically and socially. This example also touches upon the notion of corporate responsibility. Friedman believes that their is no need for corporate responsibility, as corporations are not people who posses humanitarian feels. However when seeing the effects of irresponsible companies and governments can have on the health and prosperity of poorer nations it seems impossible to agree with Friedman’s point of view of not allowing, multinational companies seeking cheaper labour forces in the developing world. Actions such as these can also violate human rights within the developing countries. Yet these exploitations do not go unnoticed, tensions among different nations start to appear and social explosions are inevitable. Another example of corporate irresponsibility from western multinationals includes Shell. This oil company has damaged oil pipes in Nigeria. These have had a very bad effect on the health of the Nigerian population as well as to the Nigerian environment. However in the western countries all of the oil pipes are hidden. The very prominent question here is that why have governments and companies not done anything about the leaking oil pipes in Nigeria, and why are they hidden in the west, but not the south. This seems like a clear violation on the people of the south that the west feel they can get a way with. This therefore shows that if the west does nothing to prevent problems in the south, and that they are very responsible for the economic disparity within the global South.

The way in which the gap must be bridged in order to do this to provide them with food to get ride of hunger and malnutrition, give them access to birth control methods which will help solve the problem of an increasing population, rich countries could help by providing their governments with information and research and contraception. They need to introduce educational and technical training so the developing nations can adopt scientific and technological methods of production. However just giving food isn’t the best answer. It only provides a short-term solution. If food is sent it will put the local farmers out of business. If money is sent such as Live Aid it will not actually solve any problem. This is because Ethiopia didn’t actually have a food shortage problem, as a pose to the fact that their land was being used for agriculture to export, and they couldn’t afford to by food on the international market. This again highlights how the west trivialise the southern issues and prevents them form entering the global trade phenomenon.

In 1967 the US had 187 parent companies, which were responsible for three quarter of all investment from the US. They had 2600 subsidiaries in underdeveloped countries such as Latin America, Africa and Asia. The activities that were undertaken where manufacturing and the extraction of raw materials. Yet sales and services also took place there. The economic effects of this were striking, from 1957 to 1966 the number of subsidiaries doubled whilst investment tripled. After World War Two the US expanded their activities throughout the world. In August 1960 the US became aware of the hardship of Cuban workers under Castro. The Americans wanted the Cuban people to build strong unions which were able to represent their workers, leaving them able to make a contribution to the economic development of there own countries. The Americans claim their reason for there interest in other third world countries is based upon the idea of humanitarianism. They felt they had a ‘Stake in the freedom of workers everywhere.’

However this kind of involvement can be viewed in many different ways, it could be said that American companies look for cheep labour in Latin America, there fore their intentions are not for the good of the people but are fruitful four America. The idea of them helping the developing countries create a stable trade union system, which can be looked upon as simply a way of enforcing their own system with the notion that their way of operating is correct and applies to everyone. This could also be seen as America simply trying to gain economic imperialism over the global south, instead of actually claming a stake on the country such as inforcing the use of the American flag they simply enforce their economic system and their culture, which could be argued, has lead to the Americanisation of the world. Another example of this enforcement could be the asparagus farms in the Ica Valley on the Peruvian coastline. Here women are working hard all day in poor conditions with very little pay to supply the western multi national companies. Another example includes Brazilian tobacco farmers using western multinational companies pesticides as they were told there crops depended on it. These pesticides damaged their health and caused many suicides. With the increasing demand for asparagus due to the neo-liberal agriculture model. They are also notorious for treating their employees very badly. However the western Governments have done nothing to stop this. This clearly shows that the west is exploiting the south for there own gain, and shows, how the west and global north exert there power to keep the south economically unstable, through helping crate a disable infrastructure. For example treating the employees badly, and ensuring health

degradation for western economic gain, which is shown by the Africa aids example.

The major reasons as to why the poorer global south is being taken advantage of is imperialism that has existed for over four and half centuries. Although decolonisation of the British Empire is relatively complete, the lasting effects can still be felt by the 3rd world. From a political point of view the most powerful and prominent imperial structure was Europe, which became a political centre. This small centre of the world at one point in history dominated much of the world. However after World War One the Soviet Union and the USA emerged as the leading powers and took over political control from Europe.

Another way in which the global north such as America has exerted it’s self on the global south is through polices such as the Truman Doctrine. On March 12th 1947 Henry S Truman set out the Truman Doctrine, it stated that:

‘One way of life is based upon the will of the majority and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of institutional individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion and freedom from political oppression. The second will of life is built on the will of the minority imposed on the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections and the oppression of political freedom. I believe it should be the policy of the United States to support free people’

This speech was used by the US as a way of entering Vietnam and Korea. In both circumstances they were not able to protect and free people from the clutches of communism. Much land and money was destroyed during a long and terrible conflict where guerrilla warfare tactics were used, while the US soldiers did not have the passion and national spirit in them while fighting against the Vietcong in Vietnam.

The western countries have also given aid to the global south, however the motives as to why aid was given also plays a role. It could be due to humanitarian reasons or because the country may feel a sense of global responsibility. However aid could also be given for other reasons such as self or political interest. A government may want to be seen as a loving nation who looks out for the interest of others. However the effect that aid can have is a far more important issue. If aid is being used to help feed the poor and hungry children and used to supply better provisions for its citizens. The nation feels a strong conscience and awareness to give aid. Compared with this government, in order to maintain its control over its citizens with a wider previolation of human rights. However there have been cases were aid has not been intended to reach the poor and needy but has been the catalyst to capitalism and a corrupt government has disrupted the aid intended for the poor.

After assessing the information, it seems that there is a lot of controversy surrounding the question of how much the west has responsibility for economic disparity in the global South. Whether it be with environmentalists, NGO’s, the Fair Trade Organisation, the WTO or with president Bush himself, the controversy seems likely to continue. It cannot be argued that the west is taken advantage of the poorer nations. This is because of evidence, both past and present depicts that this is the case. However much the governments and corporation and nations try to defend and justify their action, they have had a direct negative impact on the global southern society. According to the fair trade organisation ‘Everyone has a right to a decent existence. Irrespective of the colour of their skin, their origins and the country in which they live.’ This is Cleary not what is happening in the world today. From the evidence stated, it can be stated that western society defiantly have had a huge direct impact on the poor economic growth of the global south. However the indirect impact on the southern economies is even greater. Through the western countries impact on southern countries health and working condition, they have had a direct impact on the southern countries infrastructure, and thus there economies. Across the globe from India to Africa to Latin America, these countries have been countries with natural resources and the potential to prosper economically. However whether it can be seen as the continuous bombardment of white superiority or simply the strong taking advantage of the weak, these prosperous lands and people have been dredged down. It can therefore be concluded that the west has had a tremendous negative impact on the economies of the global southern countries. The US is the global power of the world. The extreme capitalist agenda of the American governments has ensured that they are kept at the top, regardless of how there decisions affect the rest of the world.

www.Fairtrade.org

North over South, S. Bandyopadhyaiya, 1971, pg4

Rise to Globalism, Stephen E. Ambrose and Douglas G. Brinkley, 1971, pg96

Urban policy, Hisch and Mohl,1993,pg97

American Empire, Andrew J. Bacevich, 2002, pg 20

Rise to Globalism, Stephen E. Ambrose and Douglas G. Brinkley, 2002, pg34