Who Are The Real Friends Of The Third World? Monday, 29 September 2003, 1:59 pm Column: Institute for Liberal Values
Who Are The Real Friends Of The Third World?
by Akinyi June Arunga
Nairobi, Kenya
Column distributed by the Institute for Liberal Values
THE TWO WOMEN seated next to me in the cab claimed to be my advocates.
But as we travelled toward the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting, in Cancun, I found myself frustrated by their statements and doubtful that the policies they promoted could do anything to solve my people's poverty.
They were scholars from a Canadian university, in Cancun with a women's-rights group to protest the WTO. In the past, I'd felt gratitude toward such people, who invested time, money and energy‹even risking jail, by turning violent‹to fight for the poor of the world, a class to which most of my family and friends belong.
The more I learned about economics and world trade, though, the less I believed these women's rhetoric. Nonetheless, I thought that the cab ride would help me under-stand why these educated people would so oppose free trade and the economic reforms promoted by the WTO.
I asked them why they saw free trade as a threat to the poor's chances at wealth creation. They pointed at the huge hotels of Cancun and one of them said, "Look‹look at all this. I was in Cancun in the '80s and this place was very indigenous; now, it looks just like the United States, no different. I can hardly recognise it at all! Look‹there's a McDonald's, and a Burger King. Oh, my goodness, even Gucci! Cancun has disappeared under the [North American] Free Trade Agreement that they signed with the U.S.!"
They were disgusted, but I looked around and saw opportunity. I wished that we had such hotels in Kenya, where we have wonderful beaches and many pleasant people who would benefit enormously if the tourism industry flourished, as it does in Cancun. I said, "I'm sure that the people of Cancun are happier, since they have jobs and hence money to buy food, clothing and shelter. They meet people from around the world, and can easily sell their goods and services to these visitors."
The women snapped back that Cancun workers were paid barely liveable wages. Puzzled, I asked, "So you would like to visit Cancun and see more indigenous people in their indigenous clothes, living in their indigenous huts, farming in their indigenous methods, and eating only their indigenous food?"
To my horror, they said, "It would be better for the environment and for cultural diversity!" Full Story at: http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0309/S00339.htm