Neo-colonialists demolish the economic, social and political structures of the targeted country and handpick a puppet leader
The New York Times newspaper recently published in its Global Business section an interesting report on the visit of Portuguese President António Cunha Vaz to Angola. In that article titled “Portugal turns to former colony for growth”, it was reported that the Portuguese leader was bold enough to shop for foreign investors from Angola to invest in its receding economy. This story is of great essence to many of us who have had to empathise with Europe through this economic meltdown. The world is indeed facing serious economic crisis, but above all, Portugal’s bold move to reach out to its former colony, as a trading partner, has challenged the destructive patterns of capitalism we are witnessing with the world’s so-called major democracies – US, Britain and France.
The persistence of colonialism and imperialism seems to have returned to haunt mankind. The wars being fought in the world have had specific traits; targeting resources from these countries. First, it was Iraq, then Libya and we have witnessed destructive bombings of infrastructure in these countries in the pretext of freeing the people.
Most of the wars and upheavals that have pre-occupied most of the Arab world are not about freeing the people. It is neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism being executed with the greatest impunity for the sole purposes of galvanising, reclaiming and exploiting resources in these countries under the guise of creating a false free world.
Iraq has gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and all his murderous sons, but Iraq is not a free country. Iraq has some of the world’s largest number of destitute and orphaned children, nearly five million head counted orphans, live in that country. Most of them become child households heads or have been reduced to street dwellers - Something unheard of in Iraq before.
Today, there are 1.5 million widows living in Iraq and nearly 2 million people living with various forms of disabilities as direct consequences of the instability there. The story is not any further from the fragile Afghanistan. If the wars being launched by the big democracies were to expunge dictatorship and bad governance, how come these tragedies are a constant storyline in most of the so-called liberated countries?
The wars being fought anywhere, let it be in Asia or in Africa, are intended to promote neo-colonial interests. In Sub-Sahara Africa, they tried and succeeded, mostly
through the forced liberalisation policies imposed by IMF/WB financial institutions. Through the liberalisation of the fragile economies, most of the countries that blindly bought into that mantra have actually regressed in its economic growth index. Most of them have resorted to high level corruption because the mechanisms for equitable resource distribution were destroyed. Private foreign investors took over government functions and rendered regimes and indigenous businesses useless.
The new lexicon of neo-imperialism is Peace building. Through the wars and bombings, they demolish the economic, social and political structures of the targeted resource country. Once the war is over, they handpick and impose a puppet or stooge into power. They then rapidly introduce neo-liberal ideologies of fast tracking democracy (elections), forcing that fragile market to open up for integration into the global market and taking full control of the country’s resources through the deception of employing peacekeeping forces and humanitarian aid in these countries. In resource limited countries, they never intervene until countries melt down into absolute chaos like in Somalia or Darfur.
No matter how much Libya has to pay for the numerous NATO bombs, the message that the big democracies have taught us is that without Africa and Asia, there is no natural wealth. They also know that they cannot live with a fully developed Africa because the struggle against raw materials will heighten. The spiraling oil price in the global market is an example because many more people in the so-called underdeveloped worlds are using more automobiles since China made access easier.
So, while President Cunha decided to humble himself and seek the support of its resource rich former colony as partner in trade, the so-called democracies have opted to sell bombs and promote destructive capitalism. This is the world’s tragic moment that threatens the future of the free world.
Morris Komakech is a Ugandan social critic and political analyst based in Canada. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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