On Sat, 9 Dec 2000, Louis Proyect wrote:
> Anthony D'Costa
> >Is this development by invitation a la Wallerstein? Dependent development
> >or that imperialism does not necessarily mean pillage as you underscored
> >earlier.
>
> Right. In a few exceptional cases, third world countries benefited from an
> infusion of capital because of their strategic military value. This is like
> winning the lottery in a sense. A progressive economist would not recommend
> to working people that they get rich by buying a Lucky Strike ticket.
> Neither would a progressive economist recommend that Bolivia follow "the
> Korean model."
But Korea didn't get an infusion of capital as in FDI. Nor did Koreans
simply get lucky. A progressive "economist" is likely to learn some
lessons from Korea. Surely Korea's education record is stellar compared
to Bolivia, in which case any economist worth his salt will recommend that
Bolivia follow Korea's example. This is part of policy, whether it
succeeds will depend on a host of factors.
>
> >This suggests that all is not imperialism, there is some room to maneuver.
>
> Of course. It also rains in the desert occasionally.
Then the original thesis about the impossibility of development in a
capitalist world needs to be tempered.
>
> >What does this say about imperialism and pillage?
>
> They go together generally and occasionally bestow benefits on peripheral
> nations that can be used as prison camp guards. This is what Malcolm X
> called the "house nigger" phenomenon, except used to describe an entire
> nation like Taiwan.
But surely you are not suggesting that Taiwan is a prison camp
guard, sitting on close to 100 billion in foreign exchange, little
affected by the 1997 financial crisis. It continues to maintain a
healthy growth rate, its population doing quite well by most standards,
it's a model for small business development (relevant for most
developing countries) and its open political abertura is noteworthy.
Anthony D'Costa
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
>
>
