Hi Keith,
I've been thinking a lot about all of this since the VA told me that I
had a heart "issue" on my last check up. Must not stay up and write so
much for awhile.
I would suggest that the religion of economics that
rules the "World Bank" is trying desperately to get the other nations to
play their game so cultural genocide achieved in such countries as the
former Yugoslavia does not come home to roost on the future generations
of their children. Think about how tough the legacy of Imperialism is for
Europe. In fact the case can be made that Communism, as a viable system,
only existed as some form of redemption for the sins of Imperialism.
That Stalin and Pol Pot were only possible because of the Messianic cult
that exists in the West and permeates everything they touch including
economics. Both Stalin and Pol Pot negated the religious Messiah and
became the secular one and did the same thing that Messiahs always do,
create genocide for those who don't believe.
I would suggest that the second issue is known in Economics as the "Economie
of Scale." Like the Messiah, the Economie of Scale permeates everything.
It didn't even start in economics. But in religion then philosophy then
jurisprudence
then the arts and education, science, and with Smith, Mill and the other's,
economics.
It is a simplistic arrogance that assumes that all people are alike once we
shed
our languages and clothes and live in the dark. For example, you assume that
all countries would want what the West calls affluence and a materialistic
existence.
In the back country of Haiti there is a cashless society that has better food,
clothing,
shelter, families and pleasure than in the cities. In the cities their
religion turns evil
and creates power games while in the back country it is about personal
consciousness,
growth and pleasure. How do I know? A French friend of mine was the manager
for
a famous back country musical ensemble. They took him home and he was
astounded.
Western affluence would destroy this and many would think it good. Like
Odysseus
surveying the simple pleasures of a society that he is about to rape for the
glory of
progress and Greek values. Or as they say in America, you have to "kill the
Indian
in the individual in order to save him." When he becomes "lost" then he is a
perfect
prey for the save-ior who will recreate him in a Judeo-Christian form. Except
when
that English African expressed his Christianity in the Brooklyn Museum, the
Italian
Catholics in New York tried to bring down the Museum for expressing blasphemy.
It
seems that the only real savior is the local one even in terms of the
"Universal" religion.
We have a rule in education, it says "You only know what you personally
experience,
anything else is gossip". The Mohawks found that their children wanted only
to learn
English and the European languages. They used to allow their children to
speak English
in the home while they spoke Mohawk to them. The children spoke in English
because it
was EASIER than Mohawk, less complicated and more general. This for the
language that
is regarded widely as the MOST complicated of the European languages. Mohawk
was
specific and specificity is complex.
English on the other hand is not about individuals
although the Anglos in America scream and even cry about freedom. Donald Trump
named
the street in front of his latest complex that will muck up the traffic and
destroy the freedom
of Manhattan's upper West side around Lincoln Center, FREEDOM Place. This is
a metaphor
for the ambivalence of the typical member of the bonded masses in Western
culture. It is in
everything, the language, the religion, the arts, the economics, the rule of
law, everything.
It is not surprising that former colonies or members of the UN would want to
receive some
kind of healing from the mess that was left. It is also not surprising that a
country like
Yugoslavia who at the end of a Dictator's life would have all kinds of feelings
arise from his
physical demise. Feelings that would destroy what he had built, especially if
the base culture
is built around vendetta and all of the cultures of Yugoslavia are vendetta
cultures. It doesn't
take a Freudian to analyze it. Simple Greek drama will do.
There are also elements of every culture that would enslave their parents and
communities to
their ideas rather than going out into the world and becoming students of
culture themselves.
All I am saying is that simple immediate solutions to problems that do not take
into account the
base system that the problems are occurring within are usually destructive and
create more
havoc then they solve. I believe development IS the answer, but educational
development is the
first answer. Consider the water situation created by the UN's simplistic
solution in Bangladesh
or the reason for the Tutsi's elevation in the first place. We have many
situations here of
the same type. 100% of them have ended in genocide. My point is that it
isn't so simple and
that we have to show more respect and ultimate concern lest it come back to us
in the way
imperialism has come back to England. Responsibility for mischief does seem
to be the rule
of the Universe. It has all the time in the world to "balance the books."
The materially wealthy of the world are not the keepers of Growth and Culture,
only one kind of
growth and a single simplistically brutal culture.
REH
Keith Hudson wrote:
> For those who don't automatically shut off when they hear "World Bank" they
> may like to read a paper, "Growth is Good for the Poor" at
> <http://www.worldbank.org/research/growth/absddolakray.htm>
>
> Keith Hudson
