dagblog - Comments for "Korea, Madagascar, and Nouveau Colonialism"

Wow. The second article is

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:28:06 +0000

Wow. The second article is particularly chilling.

Food crisis leading to an

Donal — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:54:43 +0000

In reply to Korea, Madagascar, and Nouveau Colonialism

Food crisis leading to an unsustainable land grab

Furthermore, many local communities will be evicted to make way for the foreign takeover. The governments and investors will argue that jobs will be created and some of the food produced will be made available for local communities, but this does not disguise what is essentially a process of dispossession. Lands will be taken away from smallholders or forest dwellers and converted into large industrial estates connected to distant markets.

Laos: The resentment rises as villagers are stripped of holdings and livelihood.

The sabotage is a testament to growing local resentment at the way land is being sold off to big foreign investors with deep pockets. At face value, leasing agricultural concessions looks like a godsend for Laos, a poor country eager to shed its stigmatic designation of "least developed country."

It's an idea. I would prefer

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:23:43 +0000

In reply to Maybe you could post a teaser

It's an idea. I would prefer to have the discussion at dag, both because I'd like to drive traffic here and because I enjoy the discussions more. But I think that I might annoy the folks at TPM if I post teasers up there all the time. I suppose that I could switch off.

Maybe you could post a teaser

Donal — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:17:55 +0000

In reply to Thanks. That interpretation

Maybe you could post a teaser in one and a full post in the other.

Zimbabwe's story is one of

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:17:39 +0000

In reply to An absolutely fab post,

Zimbabwe's story is one of the saddest in the world. Congo frustrates me, Darfur upsets me, but like you, Zimbabwe enrages me. The people of Congo and Darfur probably suffer more, but Zimbabwe was, less than a decade ago, the pride of Africa. Mugabe and his cronies have diabolically destroyed their nation and the lives of their people so that they might prosper. Somehow, this seems even worse to me, at least in one way, than ethnic cleansing. It's driven not by tribalism but by pure amoral self-regard.

An absolutely fab post,

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:54:01 +0000

In reply to Korea, Madagascar, and Nouveau Colonialism

An absolutely fab post, Genghis. I'm with acanuck. This is not only not good, but is ugly. There are so many people who have such amazing executive skills, people who run the local NGO organizations, locally nurtured talents and really stunning ones too, that for Daewoo to bring in exploitable labor from SA (South Africa) is itself a claxon for bloody encounters with the locals. This is worse than simple exploitation, this is exploitation with added toxicity which will only destroy whatever is local and precious and good. I lived and travelled throughout Africa in 2000 and 2001. I spent a month in Madagascar and worked tangentially with a local conservation NGO and I absolutely loved the island and its people. Its flora and fauna are unique. And the people are, like, totally marvelous as they are in every country I went to in Africa. I have a visceral hatred of colonialism and its ever recurring brands and many faces, I hate even more its many repurcussions. I lived and worked in Anta nana rivo-Renivohitra [generally known as Tana] and travelled around to places like Taolagnaro [Fort Dauphin] and Andapa where the majority of the population consists of farmers. This story makes me livid. However, what makes me sick and crazy are stories like this one.

Second

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:11:43 +0000

In reply to Living in Korea - sounds like

Second

Thanks. That interpretation

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:55:50 +0000

In reply to I gather that the project

Thanks. That interpretation makes more sense and jives with other reports that say "arable land."

I made the same United Fruit comparison up at TPM (I think that I may stop cross-posting these post in order to focus the discussion). I agree that the consequences of these deals could range from bad to really bad.

Acanuck has nailed it with

keke — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:50:20 +0000

In reply to I gather that the project

Acanuck has nailed it with "the agricultural equivalent of strip mining". Labor imported from South Africa to a country full of people desperate for jobs? Naked exploitation is the opposite of development. It was hard to imagine how things could get worse in Madagascar. This is how.

Living in Korea - sounds like

Donal — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:46:38 +0000

In reply to This is a really fascinating

Living in Korea - sounds like a good subject for a blog post.