*The Insanity of Comparative Advantage* A key concept in the insanity of free trade is the idea of comparative advantage. On the surface it is promoted as a logical and rational concept which will lead to the wealth of nations.
It states, that a nation should produce and export what it has an advantage in producing, compared to other countries – raw material and labour cost wise as well as infrastructurally, technologically, and educationally – and import what other countries have the same advantages in producing. This trade should bring prosperity and progress to all. What this really means is that Africans should continue to export raw materials for western markets and supplying cheap, if not slave labour for colonial farms, industries and companies. The western nations who have a technological and educational head start, should concentrate on the hi-tech production of goods and services. This argument assumes it is not possible for Africans to acquire the same knowledge and skills that allowed Europe to make the material advances of the past centuries. Last time I checked, skin was not the organ through which the processes of thought occur. The overdeveloped nations of the world grew in strength and prosperity through the systematic practice of rape, theft, murder and the wholesale genocide of other non – European societies, as well as a brutal exploitation of their own dispossessed populations. This material advantage these nations today are so proud of is maintained artificially, by means of the current global world order, through its organs of repression such as the UN (and its sister organs such as WTO, IMF, World Bank) EU, AU, various NGO`s, and the African elites (today’s version of the black slave traders). Comparative advantage is preached to us in order to block us from creating societies designed to bring about prosperity as African peoples. If we were allowed to do this where would this leave the overdeveloped world? These nations have been built upon and to this day are structured upon the exploitation of non-western nations and peoples. For this to end requires either (1) a total restructuring of the economic and political systems of the west as well as a definite break from the ideology of racial superiority which has possessed western thought over the past centuries or (2) a resurrection of the African personality (a precise definition of this can be found in the Odidia manifesto) thereby liberating African societies from their current self understanding of themselves as victims. The second option is the most realistic. We must hold our destiny in our own hands. Expecting the oppressor to one day change, hands over our power, to those who would pull the very skin off our backs if there was a profit in it. Acting to alter our situation reclaims our power. It is also clear that in the overdeveloped, mainly western nations, a collective amnesia seems to set in when it comes to dealing with slave trade and colonization. Denial sets in, when neo – colonialism and the terrors of globalization are brought to light. Arrogant disbelief, bordering on anger surfaces when the African contribution to human civilization is mentioned or even alluded to. In the light of this prevailing mentality how can we trust the prescriptions proposed, to soothe what ails our societies, when it is the same “doctors”, who so massively contributed to the problem, who now pretend to be the kind hearted healers who have the answers to all our tribulations ? I ask you, would you let a poisoner treat your child, or a lion tend your cattle? If not, then why accept suicidal economic theories from those who have a vested interest in our destruction as a people? There is no advantage to comparative advantage. Do we not grow when faced with the challenge of acquiring new skills, do we not as humans take pride in learning and transforming our learning into material and non material wealth ? If this is so, and we Africans are human beings,then it is high time we begin to realise our potential instead of following half baked ideas,designed only to increase the bank accounts of a minute transnational capitalist elite.
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