at 04:49 23/10/98 David wrote:
>It's when I see something like this that I realise how little 'bottom-up'
>or 'people-centred' development mean in the real world. This post seems
>to involved all sorts of dubious elements: 'training local government
>officials in market principles' - how patronising and how imperious can
>you get? Ditto: 'improving channels for local business to influence
>national level policies related to rural markets' - with all the implied
>subversion of any truly democratic process that this implies. Finally of
>course there is the provision of 'credit' - does this simply mean financial
>companies moving on and creating indebtedness and dependency just
>like everywhere else in the world.
I think you have jumped the gun on this. When USAID enters a country, it
is only with the host Government's approval, which is based on
extensive negotiations about what strategy will be used to achieve
mutually identified goals. Therefore, the Government of Mongolia concurs
with this program, its activities (including the training of government
officials in market principles), and the anticipated results.
>This job may be an 'opportunity' for the no-doubt western-educated
>economist who will get it, but it is not fot the people of Mongolia. And to
>have the nerve to call it a 'civil society' program- it is a programme for
>the economisation and commodification of Mongolian life, and I hope it
>fails.
If this program is designed to enhance the foundations on which the rural
areas can achieve greater economic development, how can it not be for
the people of Mongolia ? Why do you hope it fails ? Are you saying that
the people of Mongolia don't deserve a chance to improve their economy,
or do you just not trust USAID ? If the Mongolians didn't need this type of
intervention, their Government would never have approved it.
>My hope is that many of the ordinary people of Monglolia simply resist
>these moves. Just as many tribal groups refused to move to
>purpose-built towns provided by the former socialist dictatorship (or did
>move and then returned to their traditional and sustainable ways of life
>later), I hope that they will resist the new dictatorship of the market,
>which will draw them into unequal bargains from which they will find it
>very difficult to get out. I hope instead they listen to the farmers of India
>and the Phillipines now fighting against economic globalisation and the
>undemoocratic centralisation of power to corporate-dominated bodies
>like the WTO, and those people throughout the world who have
>contributed to the demise of the Multilateral Agreement on Investments,
>which died yesterday at the OECD in Paris.
if the people choose to resist this initiative, it will be their own choice, but
you're kidding yourself by thinking they will categorically reject an
opportunity to possibly improve their lives. Like it or not, globalization is
upon us - maybe they will learn enough through programs like this to
decide not to participate, but don't they deserve the right to make that
decision themselves ?
>We're coming to a crossroads - which way are you going?
Forward - with or without you.
Matt
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