Anyone has read it yet? Comments? World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability From Publishers Weekly A professor at Yale Law School, Chua eloquently fuses expert analysis with personal recollections to assert that globalization has created a volatile concoction of free markets and democracy that has incited economic devastation, ethnic hatred and genocidal violence throughout the developing world. Chua illustrates the disastrous consequences arising when an accumulation of wealth by "market dominant minorities" combines with an increase of political power by a disenfranchised majority. Chua refutes the "powerful assumption that markets and democracy go hand in hand" by citing specific examples of the turbulent conditions within countries such as Indonesia, Russia, Sierra Leone, Bolivia and in the Middle East. In Indonesia, Chua contends, market liberalization policies favoring wealthy Chinese elites instigated a vicious wave of anti-Chinese violence from the suppressed indigenous majority. Chua describes how "terrified Chinese shop owners huddled behind locked doors while screaming Muslim mobs smashed windows, looted shops and gang-raped over 150 women, almost all of them ethnic Chinese." Chua blames the West for promoting a version of capitalism and democracy that Westerners have never adopted themselves. Western capitalism wisely implemented redistributive mechanisms to offset potential ethnic hostilities, a practice that has not accompanied the political and economic transitions in the developing world. As a result, Chua explains, we will continue to witness violence and bloodshed within the developing nations struggling to adopt the free markets and democratic policies exported by the West. (On sale Dec. 24) Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
I'm unable to contribute any expertise, but anyway... ;o afaik the emergence of "market dominant minorities" in developing countries is nearly inevitable. The lack of development is going to mean there is an advantage some group will be able to take advantage of, usually foreigners. Countries that have eventually come to flourish in these situations are those that had some protectionist policies of their basic needs and national resources. Countries who negotiated hard with foreigners before opening their doors have flourished. Japan set a good example by demanding that foreign companies that want to do business there must share their technology. On the other hand many South American countries have not made progress in standard of living and watched their wealth get siphoned out of the country by exploitative multinational corporations ("market dominant minorities"?). He is quite right that the development of capitalism in the West was in quite different circumstances. I'm predisposed to believe the prime difference is that when extreme amounts of capital get concentrated in the hands of a few, capitalism functions in a entirely different manner, contrary to it's ideals of competition and progress. This was not so much the situation in the West, but it is for the developing countries.
This topic is very interesting in the sense that there is another post that relates to this at: http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=77744&goto=newpost Amy Chua, the writer of the book is a lawyer and professor that does not have any background on science and technology. However to have a successful economy, one must have a large number of scientists and engineers that these countries lack. We had a gentleman from Liberia that wanted to develop the country due to its rich resources and 80% unemployment. I sent my VP to Washington to meet him. He was surprised that my VP was not white and said that we have to send a whiteman to Liberia if we want a deal done quickly. This happens to Africans too....Both groups do not put much emphasis on science and engineering. The society does not respect them....So they get what they deserve....they wait for these multinationals to come and rape them....Be careful what you wish for.....such is life....even though it is politically incorrect to say these....
