Jihadism,†9/11, and US Relations with the Muslim World
Development is a vague term. It is seen in our modern times as the antidote to poverty. Policies all over the world are shaped around this term in order to help the Third World countries, which continue to suffer from the leftovers of Colonialism and still find it hard to loose dependency on their previous father states. It is ironic that this “father states†today are the ones who are now helping their children release the dependency strings. But yes, this is the case. It is the developed countries, which once conquered the underdeveloped, who are today constructing development policies to save them from their economic stagnancy. How do they shape these policies? Some scholars believe that history repeats itself. They believe events in different times and contexts can be solved with measures found in similar cases. However, I disagree with this notion. History does not repeat itself. We might be able to learn from our mistakes from the past but every particular case must be given exclusivity. The fact that the Asian Tigers flourished through free trade, globalization, and export-led economies, does not mean that Africa will have the same response. It is a mistake that has been repeated. Each region of the world should be treated separately. Culture, history, political regimes, values, society, and other factors must be considered. Africa did not respond successfully to BWI’s, WTO’s, and IMF’s policies because it was not prepared. The failed African countries have weak institutions and African governments are still trying to manage their own domestic affairs. Also, Africa was forced to change fast in these destabilizing conditions, this is why the antidote did not work, and it only made the situation worse. It is now admitted that many mistakes have been made since 1981, but it is too late, policy failures already affected enough the performance of the economy of African countries. A “Leap Frog†now condemns these countries after they skipped a whole stage of development. They cannot go forward and cannot go back. They are stuck in the mess. How will the developed countries now act to reverse the damage? What is the solution for Africa?
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