So, granted, this one was kind of a freebie considering that I had to write an essay about women and violence. But, I'm glad I decided to make it one of my 101 things because it allowed me to explore a different field of political science that I've never dwelled in before.Depending on the stream you take in political science, your focus will vary from another person. I have met people that have focused on international relations, others on political theory and a few on development. For quite some time now, I have focused my studies on international relations and the interaction of states in the global economy. I believed that IR would be my career path and I intended to pursue it.
However, these past two months have given me insight to what I'm really passionate about and where I want to head once I'm finished school. My classes involved third world development, and gender and international relations. The relationship between both of these classes was the use of capitalism in gender development and use of capitalism in third world development. I had never placed much consideration into the effects of capitalism in the third world as, quite frankly, I never payed attention to the third world. I find it interesting that I disregarded the third world considering that my entire family comes from El Salvador (other than myself - I'm from the States.)
What I learned from both those classes (and what my research has shown) was the negative effects of capitalism, of structural adjustments, of the IMF and World Bank, of concept traveling, of colonialism (and it's continuing effects today), and of maquiladoras. What I also learned from both of these classes is that I don't want to sit around and know that millions of people in this world are suffering do to the rapid transition from a socialist economy to a capitalist economy without any resources available to assist in the transitioning.
Why the first world feels the need to impose their ideological views on the rest of world is more than just ignorant; it is a blatant disregard for the cultures and traditions that exist in the world and the need to assimilate them in order to create the world into a western society. Unfortunately, this does not work; this only creates ethnic conflicts (which, if most of you watch the news, is prevalent in many areas of the world.)
If you have no idea what structural adjustment is, please do yourself a favor and research it. In brief, when a country needs to borrow money, they look to the IMF or World Bank. These organizations then enter into the country, asses its economy and its government intervention in the economy and provide economic reforms that need to take place in order to receive the loan. The economic reforms are simple - it's a change to a capitalist system with privatization of national corporations and public services. This is structural adjustment and this in itself is the cause for higher poverty rates and higher crime rates. There is more to structural adjustment than just this, but what keeps bothering me is the need to develop a country the same way that the United States was developed.
Concept traveling does not work and it is evident that modernization theory has been crippled by concept traveling. So why is the IMF and World Bank still following neoliberalism? Why are they still enforcing modernization into third world countries when it is evident that *it is not working*? In agreeing with dependency theorist Escobar, the west needs to get out and drop the concept of "development" because the word itself is ambiguous and not one theory nor one person can provide a sole definition of development that can be employed in third world countries. It's simple - each country needs to find its own definition of development.
For more information on how structural adjustment programs works, visit this website and inform yourself. And yes, if you're wondering, they are making a parody out of the World Bank, but the information that they have provided is accurate.
In search of a way to make a difference,
Lady S.
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