Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?

chikwendu
i have two problems with your argument
first, you, and others, have constructed a straw man, or refuse to hear
or accept the argument i advanced.
i stated, as clearly as i could, that africa does not stand in a
different position vis-a-vis neoliberal capitalism or globalization than
any other country; that the effects of today's capitalism is to generate
enormous disparities in wealth, to generate a reliance on minimal state
social services in the faith that corporate development will take care
of social needs, and that the increasing size of the empoverished
populations, in countries i listed from every continent, follow that
pattern. i also acknowledge that there are disparities in power, which
contribute to the weaker or poorer states and populations suffering
more. but there is no more agency as such for any state, no matter how
wealthy, to escape these forces. i don't know how many examples i need
to give: i offered russia at one point. how about ireland and spain,
portugal, the miracle states of the eu. now the catastrophe states, with
enormous problems of unemployment and poverty, debt, anger in the
streets, you name it.

secondly, pace pius's picture, it isn't a question of "academic
arguments," but simply intellectual arguments. how much
anti-intellectualism do we have to bear in these arguments. first it is
foucault, misspelled to boot, then the academy or western thinkers. it
is incredible that we can't have an intelligent discussion on questions
of economic growth or political structures without seeking to establish
some formula for authenticity as a basis for thought.
let me see...i don't like the fact that freud came from austria, as did
hitler, so the unconscious must be a nazi invention
or should we ask where newton came from before we board a plane?
is the academy in which gravity's law in taught somehow less capable of
understanding the forces involved than the engineer who builds the plane
or the captain who flies it?? did the engineer validate f=ma? discover
f=ma?
if this path of reasoning bothers you, i suggest you ignore it since it
is emerging from my computer in east lansing, no doubt a very remote
location from the hard realities of life.
so my question is, what is the use of thought? where is thought's home
validated?
"the academy" is, in fact, yet another straw man in this argument,
deflecting us from the issues at hand which are oversimplified into
notions of agency that are never really given meaningful definition.

ken

On 12/20/10 3:05 PM, Chikwendu Ukaegbu wrote:
> Academic arguments that continue to paint the African as slave to
> structure do a disservice to the continent because the commanding
> heights of the global economy will not and cannot philanthropically
> plant national development in African countries.

--
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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