The origin of the third world plight Essay Example for Free

The origin of the third world plight Essay Thesis The Third world countries have continued to witness some of the most challenging times in their quest for real development that would catapult their economies to march those ones of the first worlds. However these countries have been bedeviled by major obstacles of bad governance, corruption, and exploitation by the first world countries. Of great concern has been the contribution of major world bodies that have continued to impoverish these economies in the name of supporting them. The World Bank stands out as one of the culprits. Introduction Many times is when some people do not understand what is meant by the term ‘third world plight’. This in terms means, they are those countries that still are developing. The third world countries are greatly in substantial indebt ness according to statistics. More than 50% of the people living in third world countries are living below the poverty line: this is below a dollar a day. It is reckoning, how this is happening, but the World Bank has attributed all this. In 1986 –1987, the World Bank’s president Barber Conable said that the World Bank had been a great success, yet it only oppresses the governments in the third world countries. In 1962, Robert McNamara who was the bank’s president led it to achieve higher loans levels and by the time he was resigning in 1981, the levels had increased from $883 million to over $12 billion. (James Bovard) McNamara and the World Bank supported Nyerere’s dictatorial regime and the bank gave more aid to Tanzania hence the cause of the current misery of the Tanzanian people. This kind of act by the World Bank was wanting, as it only devastated the third world countries. In late 1970’s, the World Bank also financed the Vietnamese’s government thus encouraging their brutal policies that brought about a lot of deaths of the boat people in the south sea. The bank was to finance an irrigation project that was risky, as it would be subjected to rebellion among the farmers. Farmers who resisted the project ended up being drowned in the sea. (James Bovard) The World Bank lent $600million to the Indonesian government to forcibly remove people from Java Island and resettle them in the barren islands. It was due to this transmigration, that violence erupted in Indonesia, leading to the deaths of thousands of people. Despite this fact, the bank termed this as the â€Å"largest voluntary migration.† This was clarion of the banks hypocrisy as it violated human’s rights. The bank provided capital to the Ethiopian Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam. (James Bovard)   In 1984 – 1985, Ethiopia was struck by famine and this forced the government to forcibly deport people in northern Ethiopia to the south. It is believed that more deaths occurred as would have been caused by the famine. The government introduced the villagilization program but many people still rebelled against it and were killed. Despite of all this happenings, the bank still continued to lend money, as it was not concerned with the citizens but seemed to provide more help to the bureaucrats and politicians. (James Bovard) The World bank is highly to blame on the poverty in the third world countries as it uses to pressure to this countries to lend more money than which is borrowed. The audit of Madagascar Morondava Irrigation and Rural Development Project is a good example, where by the new government was pressured by the bank to accept the project so as to be submitted to the executive directors. It is evident that the World Bank gave wrong advice to the third world countries and it’s clearly brought in Western Africa in the project of promoting cocoa and coffee. This simply failed because the bank had encouraged the farmers to grow cash crops in unsuitable soils. (Barbara G 18) The world bank in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s aim, was to lend money in order to boost food production in Africa and other developing countries but this did not happen as almost 20% of the food production had fallen because much of the bank’s investments went to big irrigation schemes and state farms thus wastage of money. It is due to the bank’s poor investments that dragged down the entire economies of the third world countries. (Peter T. Bauer 21) In 1980, the world began Structural Adjustment Loans programs that encouraged policy reforms. Most of these loans were mainly going to the governments of the third world countries in repaying their debts to the bank or the international momentary fund. In 1984, a statement from a world bank’s official was bizarre, as he said, â€Å"if china is to maintain a reasonable growth rate and manageable debt service payments, it will need to obtain the necessary additional foreigner capital at an average interest rate below the market rate.† This implied that even investments in the third world countries would not be greater than the banks interest hence putting third world countries into deeper poverty’(Peter T. Bauer 23)    Problems faced by the third world countries Malnutrition- a good example is in Kenya whereby a bank report found severe malnutrition widespread among the beneficiaries. Barbara Gunnell concluded ‘the real loser is the Kenyan government, or future generations of Kenyans who will go on paying the World Bank interest on the loan.’ This was due to the fact that the bank had invested $20 million in Bura irrigation but when the then president Daniel Moi toured Bura he found ‘eroded irrigation canals, abandoned plots, poor crops, tumbledown and unsanitary housing, zebra grazing on irrigated land and on air of decay’(Peter T. Bauer 23) Diseases -a lot of diseases have become wide spread in these third world countries and they include; The AIDS pandemic, malaria, cholera among others. Poor infrastructure- poor insfrastructure has become a major threat to these countries as many accidents occur though roads that are constructed well but the cost of maintenance is quite high hence they become dilapidated. (Peter T. Bauer 24) Desertification- an example is in Botswana whereby two livestock projects that were to promote cattle rising resulted to overgrazing. The bank further introduced a third livestock project despite the fact that it led to overgrazing. (Peter T. Bauer 26) Displacement- the bank is spending about half a billion dollars in the largest westwards-flowing river in India to dam it. This was proved that it would end up displacing thousands of people and destroying a lot of land but the World Bank went ahead with its plan. Insecurity- the third world countries have been faced with high rate of insecurity as foreign direct investments have been directed to other regions hence of no benefits to these countries as high crime rates still continues. (Peter T. Bauer 33) Poverty – many people in the third world countries are living below the poverty line due to the indebt ness that they have to their donors, international momentary fund and the World Bank. (Peter T. Bauer 34) Conclusion It is evident that though the World Bank has helped these countries, it is majorly to blame for dragging their economies. For all countries in the world to be at par, it only would be best to cancel of, the debt of the so-called third world countries. The bank ought to encourage reductions in lending capital to enable these countries economies to grow. It could also not lend capital that will be of bad use, as this only benefits politicians of these countries and continues to deteriorate their economies. Works Cited Barbara Gunnell, The Great Bura Irrigation Scheme Disaster, African Business (April  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1986): 18. James Bovard: The World Bank vs. the World Poor: Policy Analysis: Retrieved on 13th May 2008 from http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa092.html Peter T. Bauer: Equality. The Third World. And Economic Delusion: Cambridge, Harvard  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   University Press, 1981 p. 21.