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Development has been the endpoint to which all global economic action strives for. The efforts of governments, NGOs and corporations for the last fifty years have been focused towards the development of the third world. The primary purpose of third world development is to improve the livelihood and welfare of the people of those countries. Then why is it that it is the developers that are the cause of poverty and degradation in the third world on such a scale massive, that it should be considered a crime against mankind that it is allowed to continue. The stripping of social programs, the widening of poverty gaps, unfair treatment of workers, lack of union representation, these are the real strategies of development and globalisation. Appropriately, modern globalisation can be traced back to colonialism of earlier centuries; we are in a new colonial era, one of corporate empires. The times have changed, but not the underlying evil: the exploitation of the third world. However imperialism is no longer the force we must fear, we must now question an institution that the first world stands on for its own prosperity. This institution is the foundation of our economy, as well as the root of all labour and social exploitation in the world. The institution is modern capitalism, and it is fuelled by the oppression, as was colonialism, by the oppression of the peoples of third world countries. Labour is exploited, denied many key economic, political and human rights, in order to produce corporate product cheaper, so that the first world can reap the benefits. In order to ensure that this system is no interrupted, the capitalist system and the first world make economic mobility impossible for the third world nations.
Latin America has been a site of drastic political, social and economic change since the 18th century. Here we will find examples of the oppression of the third world by the first, what we also find are examples of methods to combat this oppression and restore social well-being to the peoples of this part of the world. Mexico is a member of NAFTA, a beneficiary of both the IMF and World Bank and a third world country that is considered to be one of the shining examples of successful development. It is also a nation with some of the worse examples of poverty in Latin America. In a country of over 93 million people, over 37 million are living under the poverty line [1]. The poverty gap in Mexico, as in many countries, has never been as great as it is today. Where are the benefits of the global market for the people of Mexico? To contrast Mexico, we will look at a much poorer nation, Cuba. Cuba does not exist on any IMF or World Bank aid lists, as the idea of a communist dictatorship tends to stave off the aid of capitalist organizations. However in terms of social development, Cuba surpasses Mexico in a number of areas. The problem of street children that exists in almost every Mexican city does not exist in Cuba, nor does the increasingly apparent poverty line. The infant mortality of Mexico is 27 deaths per 1,000 live births; in Cuba it is only 8 deaths per 1,000 live births. Even Cuba’s life expectancy is higher then that of Mexico’s by 5 years. The most shocking statistic is that Mexico’s per capita GDP is more than 3 times that of Cuba[1]. A GDP the size of Mexico’s would be considered a success of development by capitalist organizations, but the impoverished people of that country would tell quite a different story.
Like most third world nations, Mexico was seduced by the lure of industrialization and capitalization the IMF and World Bank promised. A nation that whose economy was mainly focused around agrarian production and raw recourses was eager to become a modern nation in the world economy. Abandoning it’s agrarian past; Mexico began a project of manufacturing. In 1982, Mexico had approximately 2,000 state run industries. These industries, although providing jobs, were not utilizing the free market enough. Mexico began privatising its industries, opening its doors to American corporation like GM, who took advantage of the cheap labour in Mexico. By 1998 the Mexican state held less than 200 industries [2]. The profits from exports increased greatly, however at what cost? The distribution of wealth is Mexico is very uneven, with the top 20% of the population accounting for 55% of the nation’s wealth. 40% of the country lives below the poverty line, most of these are in the agrarian south; an area once know as the bread basket of Mexico is now own by the tobacco and sugar industries. The wages paid by these industries is nowhere near the levels that they had been before privatisation. Mexico also sacrificed its social programs in the name of progress. Mexico, a nation that as a whole has profited form the liberal economy has one of the worse health care systems in Latin America. With the IMF advocating a program of privatisation, the poor in Mexico, who make up a large portion, are left having to pay for their own heath, a luxury that many cannot afford. Although many find work with the giant corporation that have modernized Mexico’s economy, the wages are not even enough to support a single individual, let alone a family. Why are wages so low? Trade unions in Mexico are all but non-existent thanks to the policies implemented by the Mexican government under the advice of the IMF [3]. Workers rights, heath care, low-income housing, minimum wage and welfare, these are foreign ideas in Mexico. Mexico is a wealthy, modern nation of industry, a nation that is a shining example of the successes of the modern Liberal economy; and yet its people are impoverished, oppressed and dying.
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Julian Benson | May 21st, 2004
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