Economic Colonialism
Posted 10 years ago on Dec. 12, 2013, 4:11 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt (1) from Plainfield, NJ
"More and more Zambians in the markets—teachers, nurses and civil servants who, having lost their jobs, turned to selling secondhand clothes. How, Bloemen wondered, did all of these Africans end up selling used clothing?" And where did all the T-shirts, jackets, hats and skirts come from? She decided to follow the trail of the secondhand clothes.
"Many Zambians feel that the stringent economic policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are to blame for their country’s insurmountable debt. Sophi Phiri, a corporate investment banker, says: "We don't have a political colonialism in Zambia, we have an economic colonialism. "If they [the World Bank] can control the shots that far then are we an independent state?"
"What hope do Africa's creditors have of ever recouping their loans if Africa's workforce is hungry and sick and uneducated?" Bloemen asks. "If we continue to bend the economic lives of poorer nations to suit our purposes and only make things worse in the process, whom will be left to make good on the debt? Do we want to live in a world where one sixth of the population has no chance to even see their children grow up healthy?" The end of the film, having followed the T-shirts on their travels, leaves Bloemen with more questions than ever before." -- 2001
Economic tyranny and colonialism occurs on a micro level as well as a macro level, between individuals and between nations. Americans think they are "free" yet they are in economic shackles. The nation of Zambia is technically "independent" yet it is in economic shackles. It is high time the greedy grubbers of the world start paying up, and that goes for individuals on the take (say the 250 people of the world who hold more wealth than 1/3 of the world's population) and nations (those who were the first in on the capitalist economic exploitation ladder) on the take.
There are a lot of books to read to understand the economic state that Africa is in but early on Walter Rodney got it right in his now well known "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa." Also see, "The World and a Very Small Place in Africa" by Donald Wright
money controls the circulation of goods and services
economies cannot function without it
Money is fine, it's how it is financialized and utilized that is the problem.