Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Environmental Colonialism

This is very good (and long) scholarly article (as PDF file) by Robert H. Nelson on how the environmentalists have, as it were, re-colonized Africa. Local populations have been displaced and impoverished in order to create national parks and to serve other conservation objectives, in large part because Western conservationists misunderstand African wildlife management practices and problems.  

Discussions - 1 Comment

Personally, it has been my experience that economic colonialism of Africa never ended. Have you ever wondered why there is a substantial population of Tutsis and Hutus in 3 different "sovereign" African countries, each with a different dominate tribe? Or why a country like Nigeria has three large tribes, each vying for power? Perhaps the resultant "unrest" makes it easier for the former "colonial" masters to manipulate the politics and policies their former colonies?

I once had the experience to see how this continued dominance by former colonial masters works, close up. This happened when I accompanied a representative of the President of Ivory Coast to the World Bank, to discuss potential loans for funding water projects in his country.

The gentleman I accompanied was an elected representative in his native Ivory Coast, who had been chosen by his President because of background and education (in U.S. Universities) in Civil Engineering. The meeting involved several World Bank officials reponsible for project development and funding in Ivory Coast. Each was a Frenchmen.

The question of rural development was on the table, and the chap from the Ivory Coast was insisting that the best way to help his country improve the lives of its rural villagers was to promote commercial argiculture projects in rural area using mechanized farming and irrigation. He contended that by providing subsistence rural populations with "cash paying" jobs in private sector agricultural would be quickest and best way to improve their lives as they would than be able to afford their own potable water systems, schools, and even electricity.

The Frenchmen "vetoed" funding any such commercial enterprises for the Ivory Coast, insisting instead that the government institute State run rural water handpump projects instead. It was quite illuminating!

Ever wonder why African countries with straving populations are refusing AMERICAN "genetically enhanced" food aid?

Leave a Comment

* denotes a required field
 

No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: https://nlt.ashbrook.org/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/2138


Warning: include(/srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/sd/nlt-blog/_includes/promo-main.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/2003/06/environmental-colonialism.php on line 423

Warning: include(): Failed opening '/srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/sd/nlt-blog/_includes/promo-main.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/sp/php7.2/lib/php') in /srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/2003/06/environmental-colonialism.php on line 423