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March 7, 2006
Same Same, but Different
I had just started writing an entry about development smelling a lot like colonialism, something I have been mulling over since I got here, when I remembered Naomi Klein was meant to have written something about Disaster Capitalism a while back. So I went for a trawl through the old world wide web only to discover that, not only was my bright idea not that original after all, but that the smell of colonialism was more pungent than I though.
I had started to write things about fat white consultants, creating a culture of dependency, relentless branding of aid distributions and reshaping the weave of the landscape with lego-land, little-western-world construction sites, but she says it a lot better than I do….
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050502/klein
What she doesn’t mention though, are all the other obstacles on the road to reconstruction. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and “Mega NGOs” can shoulder some of the blame. But, in this part of the world, just as detrimental are corrupt government officials, dodgy contractors, civil conflict that can shut down a whole town for days at a time, entry and security problems in certain areas, remoteness, basic infrastructure that needs to be constructed first before any ‘visible’ construction like houses and schools can happen, labor and material shortages and of course, the sheer scale of destruction - I don’t know if it is physically possible to build houses for the “600,000 people who lost their homes in the tsunami… still languishing in temporary camps,” rebulid all the schools and hospitals, address the lost livelihoods of those directly and indirectly affected while taking care of ongoing, day-to-day water and sanitation needs, health and nutrition demands and child protection issues in under 15 months. I don’t know. Maybe it is, but I don’t think anyone has ever tried before…
I’m not defending the Big Boys, and I’m certainly not blaming local communities, but like all good stories, there are two sides.
Right. Good. So that’s the problem. Now what’s the answer? Maybe you shouldn’t complain about something if you don’t know the answer…
Posted by catherine at March 7, 2006 2:05 PM
Comments
Catherine, ur positively butt ugly!
Posted by: MG at March 8, 2006 5:26 AM