Assignment
To deepen your visual experiences of the inequalities entangled in contemporary global formations of power, wealth, and social status between what is distinguished as the "Global South" and the "Global North" of the planetary "states" (countries), please watch the film "End of Poverty?" streaming on LCC "Academic Videos on-line" (no advertisements) that can also be found on the web (with advertisements) at the following site:
Part A
a) How does John Perkins conceive the contemporary global economy? What statistical facts does he reference to justify his conception?
b) How does the film understand the origins of the global economy of rich and poor? What event is noted and what forces are emphasized underlying global connections?
c) What were the initial countries behind these global processes? What prior processes happened within Europe that preceded colonization in the Americas?
d) What is the role of law in colonial processes of globalization? What are basic legal principles that Great Britain used to justify acquiring Indigenous lands? What is the effect for Indigenous people (for example in Latifundos)?
e) Five hundred years later, even after colonial independences of many peoples, what has happened to these colonially acquired lands and estates?
f) What are the two forces the Maasai note behind their dispossession in Kenya? What is the percentile of white ownership in colonial Kenya? Why do contemporary Kenyans see the system of labor established as a form of slavery?
g) What is the estimated amount of contemporary slaves today?
h) What are some of the conditions of work for sugar cane cutters in Brazil? What kind of pay do they earn?
i) What is the proposed relationship of colonialism to poor countries today? What are some of the changes in the gap between rich and poor countries between 1820 and 1997?
j) How did the European countries get rich? How did Great Britain and the Netherlands gain power and wealth over Spain? Rather than Protestantism, what is another source of wealth and power by the Netherlands?
k) Where was the richest mine of South America? What was the role of "la mita" in the mine of Potosi? How much silver was estimated to have been extracted from Potosi in colonial times? How many people died in the process?
l) What is the role of "externalization" in the expansion of colonialism and poverty? How does mono-cropping build and maintain dependency?
Part B
a) According to Nora of Venezuela, how has colonialism changed over time in Venezuela? Which country does she think is now a force of colonialism in Venezuela and control of what commodity is at the center of this "neocolonialism"?
b) What has been the basic structure of colonialism in Brazil in older times as well as today according to the Brazilian analysts?
c) What tends to happen with local and Indigenous modes of production as colonialism emerges? What is the result for local and Indigenous peoples?
d) How does the division of global labor between the production of raw materials and finished products perpetuate colonial structures? How is German coffee illustrative of this phenomenon?
e) What is the role of religion in colonialism? How is it entangled in racism in the church?
f) How did/does individualism and private property articulate in colonial processes and patterns? How is it destructive of communal life?
g) How does dispossession articulate in processes of capital accumulation? What is the concept of "primitive accumulation"? What is the geography of the structure of accumulation by dispossession?
h) How is neocolonialism defined in relation to the USA and post-WWII international relations? What institutions and organizations are involved in neocolonialism?
i) What is the role of debt in these neocolonial processes and patterns? How did large scale dams and other infrastructure development projects articulate in the intensification of debt and ultimately accumulation by dispossession?
j) What is neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus? Who defined the "consensus"? What are the four "strands" of neoliberalism?
k) How do Bolivian representatives in the film represent the effects of privatization in Bolivia? Why did people fight water privatization?
Part C
a) What are the flaws of the contemporary capitalist system and its effects on poverty for Stiglitz?
b) What does the film suggest about the value of free trade as a tool for development?
c) What are some of the impacts of the US company Dominion in Kenya?
d) Who does the global elite use as replacements for the era of tyrants to maintain subordination and exploitation in the Global South?
e) How does the film explain the overthrow of Salvador Allende as President of Chile?
f) What happens in Iraq? What is meant by the "jackals" in this case and others? Why and in what context do they appear?
g) Poverty reduction by half involves what kind of expenditure? Other statistics?
h) What problems have local people in Tanzania faced as a result of transnational corporate mining?
i) Why does trickle down economics not work?
j) What is the relationship of poverty and violence?
k) What are some of the proposed tools for removing poverty?
l) What is the degrowth approach? Why do they promote "degrowth"?