Bley Anondo Charles-Olivier Sey
Grade
Dr Siendou KONATE
Global Ethics Pol 3325
Remark
Globalization: Birth of Economics Hitman
At the Institute for International Economics’ Inauguration of the Peter G. Peterson
Building, Washington, D.C. October 24, 2001 Alan Greenspan ex-chairman of the US central
bank say “Globalization as generally understood involves the increasing interaction of the
world’s people through their national economic systems” and more generally it is a kind of
economic interaction among the world’s country that promote economic growth. For this
economic growth were put in place some institution that was in charge to help those that
are poor by some regulation in their trade, through loan or even investment in those country
for being sure they are developing well the country. But the contrast is that we are in 2018
and these institutions that are supposed to help those poor country actually made them
more poor and indebt that they were in the beginning so the questions that can rise is that
what is these institutions and their role of these institutions? And what do they actually do?
Can we call them economic hitman and why?
During the World War II, it happens a very big depression because of war and for
preventing from another depression, was created such institutions from which we can
denote the World Bank that are for main goal to help by giving loan to country in difficulty,
the International Monetary Funds (IMF) that guaranty the financial stability of all state, and
the World Trade Organization (WTO) which encourage exchange and limits protectionist.
And all of it was created through globalization because people wanted a world with
interaction instead of protectionist. But the fact is that instead of helping poor country, we
tend to think that there are huge instrument for the domination of rich country over poor
country for maintaining them in their poverty. John Adam say “There are two ways to
conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword and the other is by debt” so through this
tough, we can considered this action as ‘the modern slavery’. And worst that poverty, these
institutions help rich country to get more power over the state of the country himself with
the so-called Structural Adjustment Program.
The Structural Adjustment Program is a program initiated by the International
Monetary Fund, a program that can vary from one country to another depending on the
need of that country but the main purpose stay the same, help country that cross a bad
period, it cans be a period of civil war, a political crisis or some others reasons and what this
program promote is an aid for those country in difficulty principally monetary aid that they
could use to ensure their stability but the question is how this helpful program is today the
major cause of poverty. In his book A Fate Worse Than Debt, Susan George say: “Debt is an
efficient tool. It ensures access to other peoples’ raw materials and infrastructure on the
cheapest possible terms. The IMF cannot seem to understand that investing in … [a] healthy,
well-fed, literate population … is the most intelligent economic choice a country can make.”
And what she was trying to say is that these institutions give loan to poor country in
difficulty that they already know poor country won’t be able to pay back. The fact is that that
the loan himself is not directly give to the country and it is even not manage by the country,
it is manage the these institutions who give the loan and they use it for saving the country by
decreasing the power the state.
We can use the example of Côte d’Ivoire, a country that cross a period that people
qualify as the “Ivorian economic miracle” in 1960-1970 with a loan of 7.5 million from the
World Bank that was invest in every sector of activity but the fact is that in 1990 after a
military crisis, the country is in trouble and a Structural Adjustment Program is instore. This
program have like purpose the commerce of the wood that lead us to have only 5 percent of
the forest nowadays and the sacrifice of the coffee-cacao’ price. This lead for Côte d’Ivoire to
accumulate a debt of 430 million of dollar so in front of this failure, Côte d’Ivoire decided to
stop dealing with the World Bank and all of these have several consequences to the
economics of Côte d’Ivoire. Among them, the loss of the power of the state because of the
privatization of capital and resources that create a high exterior’s dependence, multinational
start coming and covert all the market that should be drive by Ivorian. This debt also
decrease the productivity of the performant sector, the price of resource decrease so people
doesn’t want to continue to work in these condition. In 2004, we observed the comeback of
the world bank with a ‘gift’ of 1000 billion of CFA for helps but the fact is that it was the
same scenario because there are the only one to decide where it could be use and for which
purpose. So this institution instead of creating some jobs for Ivorian and increase their level
of live, their just push Côte d’Ivoire in an poverty where some multinational buy our raw
material at a cheapest price, transform it for sell it back to us at an highest price. There is
some month ago, Côte d’Ivoire have to face to an increase in the electricity’s fees, and the
fact is that the water of Côte d’Ivoire is distribute by a company name CIE and which are for
main stockholder a company name Eranove which are a French company with at the head
some French guy; so the question is how someone who live in France should be able to
decide of decision that will be apply to poor people while he doesn’t live the same reality
because we are living in a poor country where the minimal wage that is not respected
doesn’t permit to the population to survive and it is someone living in France who should
decide about the augmentation of the electricity’s fees. In another hand, there is the
question of exploitation, as the multinational know that in their country of living, the
minimal wage is high, they prefer to install their industry in some country where the minimal
wage is very low and making profit about low price of production and high price of sale.
In a dynamism to humanize globalization, everything I can say is that globalization in
the depth is not a bad thing, in contrast it is something that could be very helpful for poor
countries; but the fact is that some people are always trying to get their advantages in every
situations so an idea that was idealism at the basis is now a realism idea. Globalization
should start from the culture, I mean everyone should try to understand, learn and accept
the culture of others; after it we could try to find a way for everyone to have a world to say
in the international relation, everyone should have a part of his culture in the international
relation and then we will talk about interaction among countries. But the fact is that it is only
a few country that decide the policy to adopt and even if we refuse to follow them, they try
to have many ways to have a domination on poor country and it is reflect through these
international institutions or others.
To conclude, we can say that globalization is an important advanced for every
country and it helps every country to growth their economy though free trade and others
but in the same way that globalization is benefit for the developed countries it is also nonbenefit for the non-developed countries. These institution called by the anti-globalization
economic hitman because they make poor countries more pore that they have instead of
helping them get out from poverty. So I think that we should have some reforms on
globalization because if it is well use all country will have the same right in terms of
transaction and production and this lead to an interdependence between countries.
References
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Susan, George. A Fate Worse Than Debt. Weidenfeld: Grove Pr, March 1, 1990. Print
BAMBA Ngalaiijo , CONTAMIN Bernard, DIOMANDE Kunvaly, K0ULIBAL.Y Mumudou.
CRISE ECONOMIQUE ET PROGRAMMES D'AJUSTEMENT STRUCTUREL EN COTED'IVOIRE. BINGERVILLE: GIDIS-CI, December 2, 2002. Print
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2002. Print
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.
Print
James Raymond Vreeland, The IMF and Economic Development. Cambridge:
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http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/10/globalization-developedcountries.asp
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