La Jornada Dariana

El 18 de Enero de 1867 fue el día del nacimiento del gran poeta Nicaragüense Rubén Darío. Por lo tanto en esta misma fecha todos los años se emprende la Jornada Dariana en nuestro colegio. Esta época es un énfasis a Rubén Darío y a otros grandes poetas Nicaragüenses que han influenciado la literatura Latinoamericana.

En lo personal esta Jornada Dariana ha sido una de mis favoritas ya que no solo nos hemos centrado en Rubén Darío como en todos los años anteriores, sino que también hemos tenido la oportunidad de aprender sobre otros poetas como Azarías H. Pallais (que fue el poeta asignado a mi grado). Me gustó que nos hicieran declamar un poema de él y también que hayamos leído su cronología. También me pareció muy interesante la conferencia que dió José Arguello Lacayo. Creo que es bueno que hagamos esto para que nos hagamos personas más cultas y sepamos más sobre este país.

Imperial China, Neo-colonial India

Indian Express, Imperial China, neo-colonial india, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/imperial-china-neocolonial-india/15944/2




"After decades of seeing themselves as victims of imperialism, China and India will find the tag of neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism shocking if not distasteful. Yet Beijing and New Delhi must confront a new reality. The greater their economic and political capacity to influence outcomes elsewhere in the world, the stronger will be international scrutiny of their policies." (Mohan, C.Raja)

As I've mentioned before in the previous posts China is seen as a country that has imperialist tendencies and India (which i haven't talked about before and is the msin objective of this post) is portrayed as a neo-colonialist country. India and Chinese have spured economically and politically and now their foreign policies look similar to the ones of the superpowers especially in the interest to defend their new economic interests beyond their borders. This article also talks about how the new interests of this two countries are a threat to existing powers such as the Europeans and Americans. We can observe this situation in Africa "as China and India transform the geopolitical balance in Africa and threaten to push Europe and America from their privileged positions in the developing world, they are bound to face inevitable reaction from the major powers and liberal activists in the West" ( Mohan, C.Raja)

 I think that all this imperialist tendencies have a domino effect. If we remember well India and China have been countries that when they were less developed were victims of imperialism. When this countries develop optim economies and governments that allow them to progress and they are faced with the opportunity of imperialist-or disguised imperialism such as neo-colonialism or neo-imperialism- ideas, they take the opportunity and the same effect spreads. Off course this is all in a long time span and can[t happen in a few years.

Exploitation of Africa's Land and People

 The Final Call, The exploitation of Africa's land and People, http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/world_news_3/the_exploitation_of_africa_s_land_and_people_5661.shtml

Africa has been the land of opportunity for a long time. Executive director of TransAfrica Forum writes: “As a continent, Africa is still enslaved because of its vast wealth. The mining and extraction of precious materials—oil, natural gas, coltan and cobalt—enrich corporations but cast a shadow of poverty throughout the continent. Whether in the Niger Delta or the Democratic Republic of Congo, the people experience lives of misery and receive very little benefit from the richness of their land. This is known as the “resource curse”—the paradoxical relationship so many Africans have to the richness of Africa.” (Lee, Nicole C.)  In other words, instead of taking financial benefits out of their natural resources the African people are encounteres with a a source of problems that leaves them with a deplorable quality of life.

Emira Woods, director of Foreign Policy in Focus for the Washington D.C.said that the coorporations are the ones who use the labor and land and the people are the ones who pay for it. She calls this :modern slavery and that it is exploitation that makes you think about slavery in the old times. As an example Mrs. Woods talked about Firestone which for years has run the largest rubber operation. According to her they use child labor and don't pay the proper taxes for the government. Also, Africa is the greatest supplier of oil to the U.S, the 80 percent of cobalt used in lithium powered batteries comes from Africa, and the majority of the coltan used by celphone companies and electronic devices has the same origin.

According to the United Nations and several human rights organizations, many of the conflicts on the African continent can be traced to the control of mineral resources.

This article also talks about the involvement of the U.S gov. and the plans that the actual president, Barack Obama, has for Africa. Pan-Africanist Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika said that he anticipates Obama will have a special connection and obligation over the problems of Africa because of his African roots.

"The advent of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) on the continent bears witness to the fulfillment of Dr. Nkrumah’s words. In 2007, former Pres. George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the creation of U.S. Africa Command. The decision was the culmination of a 10-year process within the Department of Defense acknowledging the emerging strategic importance of Africa and recognizing that peace and stability on the continent impacts not only Africans, but the interests of the U.S. and international community." (Muhammad, Ashahed M.)

As we can see in the previous quote the U.S said as an argument to form the AFRICOM that peace and stability in the continent also impacts the interests of the U.S. In my opinion this is a form of Imperialism similar to the white man's burden and I consider it as imperialism disguised as help.

Made In China- Mc Donalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut exploit workers

Publicalpha, Demandan en China por explotación laboral a McDonald’s, KFC y Pizza Hut

http://publicalpha.com/demandan-en-china-por-explotacion-laboral-a-mcdonalds-kfc-y-pizza-hut/

Get the closest item you have to you and read the label. Probably you just came up with the expression: "Ugh. Made in China". Although China fabrics many poduct most of the time they are from brands of the United States, France, or other developed countries. Yes, in fact,laboral work in China is very cheap and available. many famous brands take advantage of this and not just by paying the minimum salary but by paying even less than that.

The fast food franchaises of KFC, Mc. Donalds, and Pizza Hut have been demanded for laboral exploitation in the province of Canton, since they pay lower salaries than they should and have extended working hours. The lawsuit was presented after an investigation of the New Express of Guandog newspaper that said this franchaises paid 40% less than the lowest salarie of 97 dollar cents an hour. Now investigations are being held in other provinces to find out how are the conditions of workers of this fast food giants in other provinces.

In my opinion this is unexcusable and in all means imperialism. American franchaises are taking advantage of the low labor wages and besides this they are imposing even lower salaries to their workers in other words they are being exploited by American companies. Isn't that one of the main characteristics of imperialism? As author Xiao Ming said, after reading this everytime I see a Happy Meal I won´t be able to think about its delicious french fries, but about the Chinesse and other exploited workers who make enourmous sacrifices to bring this to my table.

"Refuting the Myths" Part I

Global Research.ca, American Imperialism and its Domination over Asia-Refuting the Myth that China is becoming an economic super power PART I, link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4999,  March 6, 2007.

"China is the next world power". That's what everyone says these days, but is it true?

Well, when I was looking for imperialism articles in the internet I found one this article that focused mainly on that. It talks about how although China has extended its political and economical influence in Asia and outside of Asia, it still can't surpass the United States military or economically. According to this article the United States put China as a threat to them so that they have a pretext for military expansion in that region. The article also focus on saying that China as a super power would balance the power of the U.S and help third-world countries. China, supposedly, is not interested in mutual benefits economic relationships but in rapidly increasing their GDP growth. China is inferior to the United States in economical matters such as the accumulated investments of companies. Also, China depends on many other economies for their own economical stability. The powerful people in China have exploited China's workers and resources to an undesirable point. China may behave like an imperialist country but truly it is weak imperialist country. They have signed trade pacts, investment deals, and other kind of economic cooperation but none are in a mutual plataform.

At the begininng when I read this I didn't really found a strong connection to imperialism but then as I went on to part II. US Imperialism and its hegemony over Asia, and after reading the following quote I realized that it has a lot to do.

"We are now at the beginning of the 21st Century. On the one hand as the capitalist economic crisis has deepened, the imperialist powers will be competing with one another more fiercely for resources, for investment opportunities, and for markets. On the other hand, the US has further expanded its military forces in Asia targeting China as its potential threat." (Ching, Pao-Yu)

See the connection?

Imperialism Disguised as Economical Help

Source:

Neo-colonialism: The long arm of imperialism by Ed Caffin (Only Economic Control subdivision) http://latitudes.nu/neo-colonialism-the-long-arm-of-imperialism.html.

According to the American Heritage dictionary, neo-colonialism is a policy whereby a major power uses economic and political means to perpetrate or extend its influence over other nations.

 

"The end of World War II sparked a process of decolonisation throughout the World, the days of imperialism were proclaimed over. More than half a century later however, developed countries are still highly involved in developing or third-world countries. According to many critics, this involvement is nothing less than imperialism, often disguised as development aid. In a system often referred to as neo-colonialism, developing countries are still being exploited by developed countries. As we will see, neo-colonial practice has taken many forms. This is the case in Indonesia". (Caffin, Ed)

In a subdivision of this article we can see how developed countries take advantage  their third-world inferiors.  It is subdivided in 4 parts of the article: economic development, other ways of exploitation, mass tourism as Neo-Colonial practice, and the rich and the poor. The part that I consider the most impactant and relevant is the one of economic development. In this segment we are explained how financial aids to poor countries are just disguised ways of imperialism because for the financial aid the countries need to follow the regulations of the developed country who is "helping them". They give us the example of Indonesia, which had massive external debts that then were controlled by the decisions of foreign parties (Intergovernmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI), later knows as Consultative Group on Indonesia). This consortium conformed mainly by Western leaders had to made decisions such as how mush financial aid they would give to Indonesia and they had to approve Indonesias budget. After all, this resulted in economic growth but the conditions were to strict and one could say that Indonesia was imprisoned.

Another thing besides financial aid was that rich countries got interested in the raw materials of many developing countries. Indonesia which is rich of crude oil, natural gas, tin, copper, and gold, was victim of this form of imperialism. Most of their raw materials were exploited by world powers such as the United States. These developed states which exploited the raw materials of third-world countries like Indonesia often obtained monopolies of these exploitations.

The Best Gift

I never receive birthday or Christmas gifts from my parents but instead from the other members of my family. The gifts from my parents always come disguised as trips, which I love because traveling is one of my passions. For my 15th birthday (which is supposed to be a special age for women) I chose to travel with my mom to London, Egypt, Italy and then take a cruise around Greece. It has undoubtly been the best gift I have ever received in my life! I had a lot of fun with my mom and other 4 female members of my family and at the same time I learned a lot about different cultures and traditions. I also met a lot of great persons whom I befriended rapidly.

My parents didn't just grant me with a trip. It was way more than that.